Yale-New Haven Hospital news release
Release date: Dec. 17, 2008
Media contact: (203) 688-2488
NEW HAVEN — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced Yale-New Haven Hospital as recipient of the 2008 HHS Medal of Honor for Organ Donation, marking the third consecutive year that the hospital has received the HHS award. The award has been given annually since 2005 to hospitals that have achieved and sustained a donation rate of 75 percent or more from medically suitable, deceased donors.
Since Jan. 1, 2008, the multidisciplinary transplant team at Yale-New Haven Hospital transplanted 31 organs and has had 11 organ donors, an increase from 26 organ transplants and 9 organ donors in 2007. Currently, there are more than 100,000 people on the national waiting list for organ transplants; 4,176 in New England, 904 in Connecticut and 598 at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
"My goal at Yale-New Haven is to create one of the best transplant programs in the country, with the best possible patient care and excellent outcomes," said Sukru Emre, MD, FACS, director of Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center. "We are proud to receive the HHS' Medal of Honor as it is indicative of the great progress we have made in increasing organ donation rates, and our continuing efforts to raise awareness on the importance or organ donation throughout Connecticut."
Yale-New Haven Hospital is one of 412 of the nation's largest hospitals to be honored for their success in increasing their organ donation rates. The medal-winning hospitals had eight or more potential organ donors during the 26-month award period ending in May 2008, and sustained a donation rate of 75 percent or more from among eligible donors for at least a year. A total of 631 hospitals have earned the medal since it was created in 2004.
Yale-New Haven Hospital is a 944-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine. Yale-New Haven was founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826 and today, the hospital complex includes Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital and Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, with a combined medical staff of about 3,400 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties.