New York, NY - October 4, 2007: For substantially raising organ donor rates of eligible donors at their facilities, executives from 14 hospitals in the greater New York metropolitan area will each be presented with a Medal of Honor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on October 10 in Nashville, TN. The hospitals will be honored for achieving and sustaining an organ donation rate of 75 percent or higher for any 12-month period between August 2005 and June 2007. The medal ceremony will take place during a meeting of the Third National Learning Congress on Organ Donation and Transplantation.

Out of approximately 3,000 hospitals nationwide, 392 hospitals will merit the HHS Medal of Honor. New York area hospitals to be honored by HHS are:

Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island
Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx
Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens
Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn
Metropolitan Hospital Center in Manhattan
Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx
New York-Presbyterian Hospital/New York Weill Cornell Medical Center
Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island
St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx
St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Poughkeepsie
Southside Hospital in Bay Shore on Long Island
Staten Island Hospital North Site
University Hospital of Stony Brook on Long Island
Westchester County Medical Center

All 14 New York metropolitan hospitals worked closely with the New York Organ Donor Network, the nonprofit, federally designated nonprofit organ procurement organization serving the region.

"We congratulate and thank all the personnel at these hospitals in our area for partnering with us and, as a result of their level of excellence, achieving national recognition," said Elaine Berg, New York Organ Donor Network president and CEO. "Like all of the hospitals to be honored by HHS, the New York medical facilities played a leading role in saving precious lives through organ donation and transplantation. We also humbly acknowledge the donors and their loving families whose generosity and compassion made organ donation possible."

The medals will be awarded against a background of increased organ donation rates around the country. Across the United States, 8,024 deceased organ donors in 2006 represented a record number-an increase of 5.6 percent over 2005. From 2002 to 2006, the annual total of donors increased 29.6 percent. In the greater New York metropolitan area in 2006, there was a record 319 donors compared with a low of 199 in 2001, and 262 donors in 2004.

These record gains follow a series of breakthrough collaborative initiatives launched nationwide by the Health Resources and Services Administration of HHS in 2003 that brought together donation and transplant as well as hospital leaders to identify and share best practices. The goals expanded from maximizing organ donation rates to increasing the number of organs per donor. One organ donor can, depending upon medical suitability, save the lives of up to eight people.

However, despite increased organ donation rates, the list of people needing organs continues to spiral. There are currently nearly 100,000 patients waiting for organ transplants in the U.S., and 7,000 of them are in the greater New York metropolitan area. Each day, an average of 17 people die because of the dire organ shortage and a new name is added to the waiting list every 13 minutes.

Addressing the critical need for more donors, the Donor Network's Elaine Berg said that the rate of organ, eye and tissue donation would increase if more people enrolled in the New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. "After enrolling in this confidential registry, which is administered by the state's Department of Health, it is most important that New Yorkers tell their next of kin about their decision," she said. "When a family is approached for organ donation, it is a source of great comfort knowing the wishes of their loved one in advance."

For further information, contact Martin Woolf, 646-291-4460 or mwoolf@nyodn.org.