Memorial Medical Center Honored for Eye Donations

[May 03, 2017]  SPRINGFIELD – For the third consecutive year, Memorial Medical Center earned recognition for its work in helping patients receive the gift of sight with a cornea transplant.

Saving Sight, a nonprofit organization that helps provide corneas for more than 3,000 patients in need of transplants each year, presented the nonprofit hospital with its Excellence in Eye Donation award on April 28.

Last year, Memorial Medical Center staff helped to facilitate 84 eye donations, which resulted in 101 individuals receiving restored sight through a cornea transplant. Overall, the hospital achieved a 68-percent consent rate for eye donations.

“These great results would not be possible without the diligent and compassionate work of Memorial’s dedicated staff, who go above and beyond to work with our patients and their families to discuss their wishes and ensure they are met,” said Charles Callahan, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Memorial Health System.

To earn the award, hospitals in Saving Sight’s service area of Missouri, Kansas and Illinois must have had at least 10 donors in 2016 and exceeded a consent rate of 45 percent. Less than 15 percent of Saving Sight’s partner hospitals will receive the award this year.

“We are grateful to our partners at Memorial Medical Center who believe in our mission to change lives by saving sight and work with our courageous donors and donor families to make the precious gift of sight possible for countless individuals last year,” said Tony Bavuso, Saving Sight’s CEO.

Each year, approximately 48,000 people in the United States need a cornea transplant to restore vision lost to disease, disorder or injury.

[Michael Leathers, Memorial Health Systems]