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Members of the HaysMed Organ Tissue and Eye Donation Committee:
L to R:  Laurie Kendall, Midwest Transplant, Dr. Heather Klatt, Hospitalist, Heidi, Gohl, RN, Marlis Norton, RN, Dorothy Kisslinger, RN, Kim Wiles, RN

Hays, Ks. (April 8, 2016) – Hays Medical Center received the Saving Sight’s 2015 Excellence in Eye Donation Award on Friday, April 8, recognizing the partner hospital for achievements in providing the gift of sight to those needing a transplant last year.

In 2015, staff at Hays Medical Center helped to facilitate 12 eye donation cases, which resulted in 15 individuals receiving restored sight through a cornea transplant. Overall, the hospital achieved a 52 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. Hospitals in Saving Sight’s service area of Missouri, Kansas and Illinois that achieved an eye donation consent rate exceeding 45 percent with at least 10 donors during the 2015 calendar year will receive the award. Fewer than 15 percent of Saving Sight’s partner hospitals will be recognized with a 2015 Excellence in Eye Donation Award.

“We applaud Hays Medical Center for empowering others to give the gift of sight and for striving to create a culture that supports donation,” Tony Bavuso, CEO of Saving Sight, said. “Thanks to the generosity of eye donors and their families, and the staff at Hays Medical Center, more people than ever were able to receive a sight-saving cornea transplant last year.”

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 Hays Medical Center, 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.