February 21, 2008
The George Washington University Hospital has been acknowledged for the first time by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its leadership role in organ donation. As part of the HHS Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative, the Hospital has achieved an organ donation rate of 75%; the national average rate is 60%. This accomplishment comes at a crucial time when the number of people awaiting transplant is higher than ever and the number of organ donations, while increasing locally and nationally, has not kept pace. At least 18 people die every day while waiting for an organ to be donated.
"The receipt of this award is a wonderful way of acknowledging the many people and the many hours that are spent at GW Hospital to insure that the option for organ donation is preserved for as many patients' families as possible. The staff on the Transplant Committee continuously works to educate new nurses and physicians to our best practices. This award is a symbol of their success," states Barbara Jacobs, Senior Director of Critical Care. Donation champions at the hospital include Heather Rickman, RN and Team Leader, along with lead members of the committee Dr. Seth Akst and Dr. Vinayak Jha, who are intensivists and physicians on the team, and many more.
To meet the growing need for organs, in 2004 the HHS launched a campaign that combined an education program that encouraged Americans to become organ donors with improved efforts in organ recovery. At The George Washington University Hospital, those efforts led to the development of "the team huddle." The team may include an intensive care physician, the patient's critical care nurse, staff, family advocate(s), social worker(s) and spiritual caregiver and gathers for frequent "huddles" to assess and share critical patient and family information. The team is specially trained to recognize critical junctures in a patient's condition. The huddle allows this vital information to be communicated quickly to all involved in the patient's care and to family decision-makers so that the donation wishes of the patient and the spiritual needs of the patient's family are met and carried out.
To date in 2007, thanks to the Washington region's organ donors and their families, an estimated 135 people who were on transplant waiting lists last year are living fuller lives—the legacy of 108 truly selfless and heroic acts.
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