Saving Sight, one of the largest eye
banks in the country, will be recognizing the staff at Cox Medical Center
Branson on Friday, March 25, for their outstanding commitment to donation.
Saving Sight awards the Excellence in
Eye Donation Award to its partner hospitals that achieve an eye donation consent
rate of more than 45 percent and had at least 10 patients donate eye tissue in
2015. Last year, staff at Cox Branson helped to facilitate 23 eye donation
cases, which resulted in 22 individuals receiving restored sight through a
cornea transplant. Overall, the hospital achieved a 64 percent consent rate for
eye donation.
The Excellence in Eye Donation Award
was created in 2014 to recognize hospitals that demonstrate an outstanding
commitment to eye donation. Fewer than 15 percent of Saving Sight’s partner
hospitals are being recognized with the honor. This year marks the second time
Cox Branson will receive an Excellence in Eye Donation Award.
“We applaud
Cox Medical Center Branson for empowering others to give the gift of sight and
for striving to create a culture that supports donation,” said Tony Bavuso, CEO
of Saving Sight. “Thanks to the generosity of eye donors and their families,
and the staff at Cox Medical Center Branson, more people than ever were able to
receive a sight-saving cornea transplant last year.”
The Saving Sight award will be
presented to Cox Branson at 11:30 a.m. March 25 in the CoxHealth Outpatient
Center lobby. In conjunction with the Saving Sight honor, Mid-America
Transplant will have representatives on hand starting at 9 a.m. registering
first-person donors. Community Blood Center of the Ozarks will also host a
blood drive from noon to 6 p.m. in the Cox Branson Tree Rooms that day.
In Springfield, Cox South will be
receiving an Excellence in Eye Donation Award on April 15. Cox South achieved a
60 percent consent rate with 150 donors.
Each year
around 48,000 individuals in the United States require a cornea transplant to
restore vision that has been lost due to disease, disorder or injury. With the
help of hospital partners like Cox Branson, Saving Sight provided corneas for
more than 3,000 of those transplant surgeries in 2015. For more
information on becoming an eye, organ and tissue donor please visit
donatelife.net.
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