CARIBOU, Maine — Cary Medical Center was among a select group of hospitals nationwide recognized for promoting enrollment in state organ donor registries in a national campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The campaign has added more than 443,000 donor enrollments to state registries nationwide.
Cary Medical Center conducted awareness and registry campaigns to educate staff, patients, visitors, and community members about the critical need for organ, eye, and tissue donors and, by doing so, increased the number of potential donors on the state’s donor registry. The hospital earned points for each activity implemented between October 2017 and April 2018 and was awarded Silver recognition through the HRSA Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign. Of the 1,283 hospitals and transplant centers participating in the campaign, 360 silver awards were awarded during this phase of the campaign.
“This achievement was truly a group effort by the Cary Medical Center team and we should be very proud of our success for sharing the important message of organ and tissue donation. For some recipients it is to achieve better quality of life, but for many this really is a life or death situation. A single organ donor can save as many as eight lives, so we are extremely grateful that we can play a small role in awareness, said Dean Côté, BSN, RN and Infection Preventionist at Cary. The Ann King 5K Donor Dash is our largest tissue and organ donation awareness campaign and I know we have made Ann very proud with our Silver Award status for the 2018 Work Place for Life Campaign.”
This campaign is a special effort of HRSA’s Workplace Partnership for Life to mobilize the nation’s hospitals to increase the number of people in the country who are registered organ, eye, and tissue donors and ultimately, the number of organs available for transplant. The campaign unites donation advocates at hospitals with representatives from their local organ procurement organizations, Donate Life America affiliates, and state and regional hospital associations. Working together, the teams leverage their communications resources and outreach efforts to most effectively spread word of the critical need for donors.
For more information on organ and tissue donation, please visit the New England Donor Services website at: https://neds.org/ or if you wish to become a donor please register at: https://registerme.org/
Cary Medical Center is a 65-bed acute care hospital well known for its patient-centered services. We are a community of providers committed to excellence in healthcare and to improving the lives of those we serve. We are actively engaged in advancing the health and wellness needs of people in Aroostook County, including the unserved and underserved. Cary Medical Center is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Pines Health Services and Cary Medical Center work closely together to deliver seamless health and wellness services to every patient we serve.
For more information visit us on the web at www.carymedicalcenter.org or find us on Facebook!
Submitted by the Community Relations and Development Office of Cary Medical Center.
