Prisma Health to offer organ transplants

Prisma Health is launching a solid organ transplantation program in response to rising community needs. The program, currently under development, will initially begin by performing kidney transplants, including living-related donors. It is being developed to provide critically ill patients with life-saving transplants in areas closer to where they live, in addition to responding to the increasing need for transplants.

 

In 2019, more than 30% of all South Carolina kidney transplant patients left the state for their care, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). That was 109 South Carolinians traveling to transplant centers in North Carolina, Georgia and other states.

 

In the United States, more than 119,000 people are currently on the organ transplant list with more than 99,000 of those waiting for kidney transplants, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).

 

 

The kidney transplant program is scheduled to begin in late 2021, and the team is making great progress in organizing services and recruiting specialized staff to meet this timeline.

 

According to UNOS, the number of kidney transplants is up 7% nationally. In 2019, 22,641 adult kidney transplants were performed across the country, up from 21,159 in 2018. According to OPTN, there were 277 kidney transplants in South Carolina in 2019, up from 234 in 2018 – more than an 18% increase.

 

Of the 354 SC residents who received a transplant in 2019, 174 of them live in the Prisma Health service area. More than 33% of all organs donated by South Carolinians were sent to patients in other states (7/1/2018 – 6/30/2019 Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients data). With the Prisma Health transplant program, South Carolinians will have greater access to this lifesaving procedure closer to home.

 

 

For more information about the transplant program, visit PrismaHealth.org/OrganTransplant.