For the second year in a row, the Timmins and District Hospital is receiving a Trillium Gift of Life Network award.
The network says TADH is receiving the Hospital Acheivement-Provincial Conversion Rate Award because of the work the hospital is dong with organ and tissue donation. It says 52 per cent of the Timmins population is a registered organ donor. It adds that the Timmins hospital also has a 75 per cent conversion rate. The conversion rate is the number of potential donors who end up giving organs and tissue after they pass away.
Manager of the Emergency Department and Critical Care Units Kim Bazinet says she is proud of the work being done locally. “I think because everyone works effectively as a team and the Timmins and District Hospital has a culture that we support our patient’s wishes even when they have deceased. So if you decide to become an organ donor we advocate that we put processes in place to ensure that happens.”
Last year, TADH had three organ donors and 19 tissue donors. Bazinet says “through my experience over the years as a nurse in the emergency room and intensive care unit, I saw first-hand how organ and tissue donation enhanced and saved lives.”
She says the hospital wants to ensure this momentum in Timmins keeps going. “Well, we are always looking at different processes in terms of how to have sustainability so adapting your policies and procedures, proving education to the staff to make sure that everybody understands what our beliefs are.”
TADH is one of 29 hospitals in the province receiving this award.