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The Ultimate Gift
A
newsletter from the transplant team
at Rhode Island Hospital
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January 2005
Innaugural issue
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Some Interesting Statistics
The first renal transplant at the Rhode Island Hospital was performed
in March 1997. The program was initially planned to perform 12 transplants
in the first year with expectations that it would grow in the succeeding
two years to a stable level of approximately 24 per year (a figure
based on the erroneous estimate of about 24 kidney transplants per
million population, the population of Rhode Island!).
The Rhode Island Transplant Service performed 35 transplants in
1997, 52 in 1998, 53 in 2005 and 63 in 2005.
Since inception of the program, 92 percent of all patients transplanted
are currently surviving and eighty-two percent are off dialysis
with functioning kidney transplants. All the statistics are not
available but we are probably the third most active service in UNOS
Region I (New England). Our goal is 70 transplants in the year 2005.
Another interesting statistic comes from the United States Governments'
Health Care Finance Agency (HCFA) which monitors the rate of kidney
transplantation per million population per state. The number of
kidney transplants per million population for the entire New England
area (UNOS Region 1) is 45 per million. When broken down by state,
Rhode Island leads all the New England states in this analysis with
53 per million. This is accomplished with one transplant unit (the
Rhode Island Hospital transplant unit) as compared with Massachusetts
(52 transplants per million) with 10 transplant units.
Also, this high rate of transplantation is reflected in another
statistic monitored by HCFA, i.e. the rate of kidney transplantation
in dialysis patients. A recent HFCA audit of Rhode Island dialysis
units showed the majority of units to have a significantly higher
rate of transplantation than the national average.
Finally the New England Organ Bank has recently released their
activities report for the fiscal year 2005. The Rhode Island Hospital
led all hospitals in the UNOS Region I in tissue and organ donations.
While this wonderful statistic benefits all patients waiting for
an organ or tissue transplant, it has added special benefit to Rhode
Island residents. The additional benefit to potential Rhode Island
residents waiting for a kidney transplant results from the
fact that in the New England Organ Bank kidney transplants are allocated
to potential recipients by a rigid point system with points being
awarded for waiting time, tissue typing, sensitization, etc. Furthermore,
additional points are given to local recipient candidates in the
geographic area in which the organs are procured. The closer the
potential recipient is to the place of procurement, the more additional
points he or she is given.
These additional points given for geographic considerations serve
as an incentive to encourage local organ donation and procurement.
The above statistics, taken together, emphasize that the
Rhode Island Hospital Transplant Services and Lifespan are providing
the people of Rhode Island and surrounding areas with the highest
access to kidney transplant care in the entire New England area
and certainly above the national average.
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