Celebrating Donate Life Month and the 2023 Pa. Hospital Challenge

April 07, 2023

HAP and Pennsylvania’s hospitals kicked off the 2023 Donate Life Pennsylvania Hospital Challenge this week, highlighting the lifesaving gift of organ donation.

Hospitals across the commonwealth are celebrating Donate Life Month with events in their communities to encourage everyone to register as organ donors. This month is an important time to emphasize the critical need for organ, eye, and tissue donors, and to celebrate those that have saved lives through their donations.

“Registering as a donor does not change the quality of care that you receive in your lifetime,” President Joe Biden said in a proclamation this month. “It allows you to give countless others a second chance at life and your family to find peace amid grief while leaving an extraordinary legacy of compassion and dignity.”  

This year, Donate Life Month celebrates how you can join the “interconnected life-sustaining community by registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor.”

Here’s what you need to know from the Health Resources and Services Administration:

• More than 104,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list.
• About 17 people die every day waiting for a transplant.
• Every donor can save 8 lives and enhance over 75 more.
• Every 10 minutes another person is added to the transplant waiting list.
• About 85 percent of potential recipients are on the waiting list for kidneys. Another 10 percent are waiting for liver transplants.

HAP applauds our members for their outstanding commitment to increase organ donation awareness and designations within their hospital and community and their participation in this year’s challenge. HAP has partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE), and the Gift of Life Donor Program—the two organ procurement organizations serving Pennsylvania—to support the hospital challenge.

Learn more about this year’s challenge online. For more information, contact Mary Marshall, HAP’s senior director, workforce and professional services.