Trillium Gift of Life Network is moving to increase organ and tissue donation in Ontario

As a lung transplant recipient, it was my pleasure to give a talk on my pre and post transplant experiences to this group attending an orientation session for new staff. Included are in-hospital Clinical Coordinators and TGLN support staff. The coordinators will be available to assist on-site at the majority of hospitals in the Province of Ontario as Trillium Gift of Life Network adds to its clinical support team of Community Hospital Donation Coordinators. Initially situated in Ontario’s neurotrauma hospitals, TGLN’s In-Hospital Donation Coordinators and their on-call teams are being located in hospitals throughout the Province of Ontario to be available to assist with organ and tissue donation cases. With the implementation of the new system for organ and tissue donation in January, 2006 (RNR) TGLN has been rapidly expanding by hiring hospital coordinators and support staff to administer the program. Ontario's new system is called Routine Notification and Request (RNR) and is designed to maximize organ and tissue donation. It is a provision of the TGLN Act passed in 2000, with the implementation of the RNR program this year (2006).

Under RNR guidelines, designated facilities report to TGLN when a patient has died or death is expected by reason of disease or illness. Once eligibility has been determined, the hospital then approaches the patient or the patients' family to discuss donation options.

It's great to see the progressive steps being taken by Trillium Gift of Life Network to increase the rate of organ and tissue donation in the Province of Ontario. Currently our rate of donation in the province is about 13 donors per million population, however it is anticipated this will increase dramatically with the implementation of the new RNR program. As a note of interest, the Philadelphia area introduced a similar program several years ago and now enjoys the highest rate of organ and tissue donation in North America, 33.1 donors per million.

Please go to my photo gallery for more pictures taken at orientation sessions that I attended. This will give you an idea of how active Trillium Gift of Life Network has been in putting the staff in place to manage this new organ and tissue donation initiative: TGLN Photos