St. Luke's Earns Top Honors for Organ Donation

St. Luke’s University Health Network has been recognized for its significant commitment to raising awareness of the need for organ donations by the Hospital & Health System Association of Pennsylvania (HAP). St. Luke’s has received HAP’s top award of titanium for its meeting the 2018 Donate Life Hospital Challenge. The challenge took place during the month of April.

“We are proud to participate in this important campaign and hope that it continues to raise awareness and increase the number of individuals who say yes to donation,” said Rebecca Wilde-Onia, St. Luke’s trauma program manager. 

The HAP Donate Life Hospital Challenge encourages Pennsylvania hospitals to increase organ donation awareness and provide opportunities for people to sign up as organ, eye, and tissue donors within their hospital and community. The annual competition encourages healthcare organizations to get the word out about organ and tissue donation by offering points to participants for various tasks. Each hospital records evidence of activities completed on a scorecard during the campaign and then submits it to HAP’s Donate Life judges. The judges verify the evidence submitted and select the winners.

Some activities St. Luke’s participated in were Blue & Green Day, where people wear blue and green and decorate their work areas the colors of Donate Life to show their support; flag raising events; social media blasts and communications; and the Network-wide Celebrate Life Ceremony which brings clinicians, donor families and organ recipients together to share their stories.

Each individual St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania contributed to the Network’s achievement. The individual campus awards are as follows: 

• Allentown-Platinum
• Anderson-Titanium
• Bethlehem -Titanium
• Miners-Titanium
• Monroe-Titanium
• Quakertown-Platinum

HAP has partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the two organ procurement organizations serving Pennsylvania—the Center for Organ Recovery & Education and Gift of Life Donor Program—to support the challenge.

Nationally 115,000 men, women and children await lifesaving organ transplants. Less than half of all Pennsylvanians (48 percent) are registered as organ donors.

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About HAP

The Hospital Association of Pennsylvania is a statewide membership services organization that strives to deliver safe, efficient, quality health care to the patients and communities they serve.

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 14,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 28 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 226 residents and fellows.  St. Luke’s is the only health care system in central-eastern Pennsylvania to earn Medicare’s five-star rating (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  St. Luke’s has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health (formerly Truven Health Analytics) repeatedly – six times total and four years in a row including 2018.  It has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program.  Utilizing the EPIC electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.