Promises of organ donations up in Waco area

Promises of organ donations up in Waco area


Promises of organ donations up in Waco area



Monday, January 28, 2008

By Cindy V. Culp

Tribune-Herald staff writer

In just a few years, Waco has gone from what officials called a shockingly low rate of organ donation to one of the best in the state.

For 2007, the rate of consent was 83 percent, said Michelle Segovia, a Texas Organ Sharing Alliance spokeswoman. That means 10 of 12 local families who were asked to donate the organs of a loved one agreed.

Those numbers are a dramatic improvement over the past four years, Segovia said, when the consent rate varied from 33 to 56 percent. They also put Waco ahead of the national average of about 65 percent and gave the city one of the highest consent rates in the state, she said.

“Waco has really taken ownership,” Segovia said.

The alliance began promoting organ donation in Waco in 2005, after learning that the consent rate for the previous year was 38 percent. It hired a part-time community educator and formed an advisory group that included organ recipients and their family members, hospital officials and others.

The group made the rounds at civic meetings and other events, which likely led to an increased rate in 2005, Segovia said. But momentum was lost the next year, which saw the consent slip to 33 percent.

After evaluating the situation, the alliance decided to concentrate its resources on working with Waco’s two hospitals, Segovia said. Since health care workers are on the front lines of organ donation, it made sense to target them in addition to the community, she said.

The alliance formed an improvement team at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. Since the hospital serves as the region’s trauma center, it deals with the majority of patients who are potential organ donors.

Shante Wells, the alliance’s hospital development coordinator, said the group includes a broad spectrum of people from the hospital. That has helped improve communications about organ donation both internally and with the alliance, she said.

The group has firmed up the hospital’s policies relating to organ donation and trained staff on signs that indicate a patient may be a potential donor.

Those efforts together resulted in Hillcrest having a 90 percent consent rate last year, Wells said. The program has been so successful, she said, that the alliance is thinking about replicating it in other cities.

Ross Davis, team chairman and Hillcrest’s manager of pastoral care, said having the group has fostered a real sense of teamwork within the hospital about organ donation. He said he is optimistic that the high consent rate will continue this year as the hospital and alliance work together to reach out to patients and the broader community.

The alliance is optimistic, too, Segovia said. Officials are excited about the development of a Students for Organ Donation chapter at Baylor University this year. The national group works to promote organ donor awareness on college campuses.