Stepping Up to Help Spread the Word About the Importance of Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation
// By Tom Mone //
No hospital public relations or marketing department is sitting around looking for something to do. In truth, there are few departments within a hospital that juggle more responsibilities, impact the organization’s brand as dramatically, or have as visible a role in telling the hospital’s story.
That said, there is one story that hasn’t been told as often or as boldly as it should. Yet it’s a story where our nation’s hospitals can play a vital role in minimizing unnecessary deaths, bringing comfort to families, and truly helping to build healthier communities in the sincerest sense of the concept.
The story is organ, eye, and tissue donation.
The Facts About Organ Transplants
It is a cold fact that 22 people die unnecessarily every day in the United States waiting for an organ transplant. At any given time, as many as 120,000 Americans are waiting to receive lifesaving hearts, livers, lungs, kidneys, and pancreases; but there are simply not enough donors to meet the need.
A great deal of the problem rests in the public’s misconceptions about how to register to be a donor, what is involved in the process, and how the donor’s body will be treated upon death. There also exists outdated thinking and blatant falsehoods on everything from the doctor’s role in organ donation to religious views on the subject.
As a long-standing trusted source of health-related information, America’s hospitals have a crucial role to play in facilitating a thoughtful conversation with their staff, patients, physicians, and communities on this topic. It’s here where hospital public relations executives can play a vital role.
Three Strategies to Lead the Way
Here are three good places to start.