Crozer-Chester Medical Center recently received a silver medal from the Gift of Life Donor Program. This award demonstrates the medical center’s commitment to the organ donation process and saving lives.

The Gift of Life Donor Program  presents awards to hospitals in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware that have dedicated and compassionate hospital professionals who understand the needs of a patient waiting for a new organ and to ensure that families are given the opportunity to donate.

In order to receive the silver medial, three goals must be achieved: achieving a donation conversation rate of 75 percent, increasing the number of organs donated per individual donor to 3.75 or higher; and expanding clinical processes for recovering organs through donation after cardiac death.

Since 1974, the Gift of Life Donor Program has served as a link between donors and patients awaiting life-saving transplants in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Since that time, the organ procurement organization has coordinated more than 28,000 life-saving organ transplants and hundreds of thousands of tissue transplants.

The need for more organ donors is still urgent. Today, there are nearly 6,000 patients in this region awaiting the gift of a life-saving organ transplant, joining the 103,000 people nationwide. For more information on organ and tissue donation, please call the Gift of Life at 1-800-DONORS-1 or visit its website, www.donors1.org.