S.C. Hospital Professionals Honored for Saving Lives Through Donation

LifePoint presented awards to numerous South Carolina hospitals on July 31, 2007, for their roles in helping save and enhance lives through organ and tissue donation. Nurses and other hospital professionals attending the awards banquet heard a talk by April Gulfman whose husband Chris Gulfman was a multiple organ donor following his death last year. Other special guests included Chris’ mother Judy as well as Chris’ heart recipient Jack Whack.

The special "Charles Thomas Fitts Award," named after Dr. Fitts, who started organ and tissue donation in South Carolina in 1968, was presented to Greenville Memorial Hospital. The annual award recognizes an individual, group (club) or organization (hospital, etc.) that has made significant contributions above and beyond the expected in the preceding year.

In addition, LifePoint Hospital Liaisons selected specific South Carolina hospitals for their superior commitment and collaboration with organ and tissue donation in 2006. Those hospitals receiving DOVE awards (Donation Opportunities after Valuable Education) included:

> Chesterfield General Hospital
> Greenville Memorial Hospital
> Lexington Medical Center
> Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
> Spartanburg Regional Medical Center (SRMC)
> Waccamaw Community Hospital
> Colleton County Medical Center
> Trident Medical Center
> McLeod Regional Medical Center

Two more DOVE Awards were given to SRMC for having the most eye donors in S.C. for 2006 and to Lexington Medical Center for having the most tissue donors.

LifePoint also presented medals to 13 hospitals that achieved a conversion rate of 75% or higher for a 12-month period meaning that three of every four eligible organ donors in each respective hospital actually became donors. Honored hospitals included:

> Grand Strand Regional Medical Center
> Hilton Head Hospital
> Oconee Memorial Hospital
> Piedmont Medical Center
> Providence Hospital
> Roper Hospital
> Self Regional Health Care
> St. Francis Greenville
> St. Francis Xavier
> Summerville Medical Center
> The Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg
> Trident Medical Center
> Tuomey Hospital

Awards were presented by LifePoint’s Nancy A. Kay, Executive Director, and Traci Adams, Director Hospital Development, who organized the second annual Collaborative Meeting with the assistance of LifePoint’s Holly Weaver and other colleagues.

The following day, guests attended a learning session, facilitated by Helen Leslie Bottenfield, Consultant, HRSA Collaborative Management Team and heard talks by Dr. Randy Janczyk, Trauma Surgeon and Surgical Intensivist, Beaumont Hospital – Michigan; Dr. Charles Morrow, Trauma Surgeon and Amy Hamrick, Neuro-Critical Care, both with the Spartanburg Regional Medical Center; Tom Glisson, Director Pastoral Care, Trident Health System; Darlene Christiansen, The Joint Commission; Mark Reiner, Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation; Tim Carlton, Education Coordinator for the S.C. Coroner's Association; Dr. Rick Foster, LifePoint Medical Advisor; panel participant Mike Waslaske, Director – LifePoint Organ Recovery Services; Nan Manning whose son Jacob Manning was a tissue donor, and Dr. Michael Frisina, Tuomey Healthcare System.

Frisina summed up the life-saving and life-changing impact of being a donor, of facilitating donation and of promoting donation by quoting novelist George Eliot, “Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.”