GRMC Joins National Hospital Donor Registration Campaign

Campaign strives to add 300,000 organ donor registrations in the United States.

Grinnell Regional Medical Center has joined the Hospital Donor Registration Campaign as a Hospital Partner. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, the campaign brings together national partners, local and regional organ, eye, and tissue donation organizations, and hospitals throughout the nation to educate employees and hospital communities on the importance of organ, eye, and tissue donation. The goal of the campaign is to register 300,000 new registered organ donors by April 30, 2012.

GRMC has partnered with the Iowa Hospital Association and the Iowa Donor Network to bring the Hospital Donor Registration Campaign to Iowa.

Suzanne Conrad, CEO at Iowa Donor Network, said, “We have enjoyed a close relationship with Iowa’s hospitals in identifying potential donors.  We are pleased that GRMC is taking additional steps to educate and increase donor registrations in their service area.”

The need is real. Each day, 78 Americans receive life-saving organ transplants and thousands more benefit from cornea and tissue transplants. These extraordinary gifts have been generously donated by ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds who took just a few minutes in a busy day to indicate their decisions to become organ and tissue donors. But broader awareness of the need for organ, eye, and tissue donation is crucial. There are more than 111,000 people awaiting an organ transplant in the United States and each week, more than 100 people on the national transplant waiting list die because no organ is available.

In Iowa, there are more than 600 people waiting for an organ transplant.

Here are some facts about organ, tissue, and eye donation:

• One organ donor can save as many as eight lives and improve many more