Banner Good Samaritan Transplant Center Earns Industry Award
PHOENIX, (Jan. 12, 2011) – The Banner Good Samaritan Transplant Center, Arizona’s oldest and most experienced transplant facility, has been recognized by a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a top performing transplant program.
Using benchmark data collected from more 740 transplant programs around the U.S., the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently awarded transplant centers with various levels of distinction: Gold Level, Silver Level and Bronze Level. Banner Good Samaritan Transplant Center’s kidney program earned a Silver Level award placing it in the top 1 percentile of all transplant programs in the U.S.
In all, HHS presented awards to 307 hospitals, 28 Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs), 157 transplant programs, and 11 individuals for their success in increasing the number of organs available for transplantation. All were recognized at the Sixth National Learning Congress for the Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice held in Grapevine, Texas.
HRSA’s Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice Award recognizes high-performing transplant programs using data provided to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR).
“This award is significant to us for many reasons,” said Lauren Rutledge, director of Banner Good Samaritan’s Transplant Center. “The data that was analyzed finds that our program is one of the top in the U.S., but there is much more behind these numbers. Our transplant staff has a passion for what they do – by treating the patients we serve with compassion, dignity and respect – we are fully vested in every patient’s experience, to make it the best it possibly can be.”
In addition to the HRSA award, latest SRTR data ranked Banner Good Samaritan’s Transplant Center’s Liver Program as the top program for three-year patient and graft survival in a region that includes California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Rutledge notes the distinction of this honor is significant since competing facilities are among the most respected in the world.
The transplant center at Banner Good Samaritan began in 1969 and provides an integrated approach to transplant patient care before, during and after transplantation The kidney program is one of the largest in the United States and the Transplant Center is also is home to the fifth oldest liver transplant program in the country.
About Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center has been providing medical care to Arizona and the Southwest since 1911. Banner Good Samaritan is owned and operated by Phoenix-based Banner Health, a nonprofit organization, and is a flagship hospital within the system. The hospital is recognized as a Magnet™ facility by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the highest honor a hospital can earn for its nursing care and practices, and has been named one of the Best Places to Work in the Valley by The Phoenix Business Journal and BestCompaniesAZ in 2007 and 2008 and one of the “Top 100 Hospitals to Work For” by Nursing Professionals magazine. For more information about Banner Good Samaritan, please visit www.BannerHealth.com/GoodSam.
