Windsor Regional Hospital has been recognized for its outstanding efforts to increase organ and tissue donations.
On Monday, the hospital was presented with the Provincial Conversion Rate Award by the Trillium Gift of Life Network.
Although Windsor-Essex has a lower than average provincial registration rate to be donors, the conversion rate or the number of families who are faced with those tough decisions at the end of life, the majority ultimately decide to donate.
It found the conversion rate locally at 91%, while the registration rate is only 29%.
"To be able to support a family through that process of making a decision on behalf of their loved one is extra ordinary so the performance we see at this hospital hasn't been met anywhere else in the province," says Director of Hospital Programs, Education and Professional Practice at Trillium Gift of Life Network Janice Beitel
Vice-President of Critical Care and Cardiology Karen Riddell says when it matters, Windsor-Essex residents care.
"It really speaks to the caring, compassion and the expertise of our teams and having those kinds of discussions at the end of life."
She says it's important for people to talk to their family members about their wishes.
"Some people are planners and they plan ahead and other people aren't," says Riddell. "Unfortunately it is a lot easier to approach, if a family knows that their family member or their loved one wants to be a donor, it is much easier to make that decision."
In 2017-2018, Windsor Regional Hospital had 29 organ donors resulting in 82 transplants.
In Ontario, more than 1,500 people in Ontario are on a waitlist for a lifesaving organ transplant and every three days, someone will die without one.