Aug. 12, 2003
Asheville, N.C.

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I am delighted to be here in Asheville today to thank all of you for the extraordinary life-saving work you do everyday to increase the donation of organs, tissue, marrow and blood. When Secretary Thompson first launched his Workplace Partnership for Life initiative, I know it was people like you here in Asheville that he had in mind.
 
With the commitment and determination of many dedicated individuals and organizations, Asheville is now the model for the Nation on how best to bring a community together around the important work of saving lives through donation.
 
Last June, I met Alan McKenzie, the CEO of the Buncombe County Medical Society.  He told me about the work of the Medical Society, County Commission, Chamber of Commerce and others and that they had set of goal of enrolling 100 Workplace partners in one year.  Ed Jenest and his group joined this team and a true collaborative community effort was born. 
 
As you can imagine, I was immediately swept up in their enthusiasm and promised to come to recognize this outstanding achievement once they met their goal. And here I am today.
 
Not only was the goal met – it was met some 9 months ahead of schedule.  And, today, I’m told you have 185 partners and have set a new goal of 300 partners.  What you have done is nothing short of a miracle.  I am so proud to be here as we celebrate this impressive milestone.  Your work and your spirit of giving put us well on our way to the goal of creating a donation friendly America.
 
The truth is that we are making progress in our drive to boost donation in this country. But we cannot afford to become satisfied or content with the strides we already have made.  We must constantly remind ourselves why we do the work we do.  You know the numbers.
 
More than 80,000 Americans are waiting for an organ that can save or enhance their lives. Yet, 17 of these people die every day because a life-saving organ doesn’t become available.
 
And you know that it doesn’t have to be this way. One organ and tissue donor can save or enhance the lives of as many as 50 people.  And that’s the result of the action of just one person. This is why we have to keep up the drumbeat – keep promoting the message that donation can and does save lives each and every day.
 
You are doing your part here in Asheville.   And I can assure you that you have an equally committed partner in Secretary Thompson and all of us in the Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Soon after Secretary Thompson took office, it became clear to all of us who work with him that organ donation was more to him than just another health issue to address. It was a deep abiding passion that he spoke eloquently about when ever he had the opportunity. When he was governor of Wisconsin, he signed into law a bill requiring state drivers’ education classes to include 30 minutes of instruction about organ and tissue donation.  The measure honored the memory of  a 16-year-old automobile accident victim whose parents honored her stated desire to be an organ donor if tragedy struck.
 
As HHS Secretary, he has made organ and tissue donation a central part of his administration. In April last year, he launched the national Gift of Life Donation Initiative to encourage Americans to donate organs and tissue and to make it easier for them to do so. 
 
By any measure, we can say today that his vision is becoming real.
 
We increased the total number of donors from 12,600 to almost 12,800 in one year, after stagnant numbers.  And we saw increases in both categories of deceased and living donors. 
 
We increased the total number of people who got life-saving and life-enhancing transplants from about 24,000 in 2001 to 26,000 in 2002 – an increase of  nearly 2,000 transplants in just one year.
 
We have also made substantial progress on all five elements of the Gift of Life donation initiative:
We now have a Uniform Donor Card that was designed with help from the American Bar Association, and have already distributed approximately one million copies of this card.
 
We held a major conference in November, 2001 on Donor Registries. 
 
We are establishing a Registry Clearinghouse to continue to assist State Motor Vehicle Departments and others to provide info and best practices on Donor Registries.
 
We are completing work on the development of a Secondary Education Curriculum on Organ Donation that will be provided this summer, in partnership with Secretary Paige of the Department of Education, to schools throughout the nation. 

The curriculum can be integrated into a variety of subject areas including drivers education, English, math and science.  It will assist schools in preparing young people to make informed decisions about organ donation.
 
We are teaming with Senator Frist and other Congressional Leaders to establish a Congressional Medal of Honor to recognize the families of donors.
 
And, I am especially pleased to report that we exceeded the goal we set last April of enrolling 5,000 organizations into the Workplace Partnership for Life.  We are currently communicating and working with over 7,500 Workplace Partners to promote donation to their employees, volunteers and members.
 
This is terrific progress.  And you have played a key role in this national success story.
 
As your experience here in Asheville illustrates, it takes tremendous team work to be fully successful meeting the Workplace Partnership for Life challenge. Nationally, many key leaders have teamed up with us to enroll their member organizations into this initiative.
 
The nation’s organ procurement organizations, the Coalition on Donation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, local Chambers of Commerce like the one here in Asheville, the United Network for Organ Sharing,  the American Society of Association Executives, the Elks Club, a whole bunch of Rotary Clubs, United Way of America, faith organizations, county governments, and many many others have teamed with us to enroll and support Workplace Partners in this fabulous mission. 
 
We estimate that our 7,500 plus partners have a combined reach of some 100 million Americans.
 
Today, I am challenging all of the Workplace Partners to achieve an even bigger goal.
Collectively, I want us together to generate and document at least 1 million new card-carrying organ donors from among the ranks of the organizations we’ve enrolled. 
 
In addition to continuing to enroll new partners, let’s turn our new and existing Workplace Partnerships into meaningful, bottomline, measureable results.
 
Let’s make carrying an organ donor card and informing our family members of this decision as commonplace as buckling up our seat belt or looking both ways before we cross a street.
 
In addition to our longer-term efforts to enroll more potential organ donors, I believe that we can do even more to generate major increases in donation in the next year or two.
 
Many leading hospitals and organ procurement organizations have already shown us the way. Nationally, on average, about half of all family members currently consent to the donation of their loved ones’ organs when eligible deaths occur in hospitals. However, in some parts of the country, large hospitals and organ procurement organizations have donation rates that reach 70 percent…80 percent or higher.
 
By modeling the results of these recognized leaders, we can continue to develop methods and practices that will result in much higher rates of donation.
 
Over the next year, we are going to target the 200 largest hospitals in the nation where 50 percent of the potential donations occur.  We will be working closely with leaders from the hospital, organ procurement and transplant communities. Increasing the average organ donation rate in these 200 largest hospitals to 75 percent  would result in almost 6,000 additional transplants per year.
 
Achieving this goal will have a tremendous impact in terms of generating the organ donations that we need to save the lives of the 17 people who die each day. 
 
Doing so will require commitment and aggressive work from organ procurement organizations, key staff in large hospitals, on-the-ground transplant coordinators, and others who need to team up to achieve this awesome goal.
 
I also want to ask your help for another project that is very important to Secretary Thompson.
 
On September 16, he will advance his national prevention campaign by sponsoring the second annual “Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day.” Radio personality Tom Joyner will again join him in encouraging Americans – especially those from minority communities – to take charge of their health by encouraging family members and friends to get a checkup from a health professional. Please join us for this event and help make it even more successful than it was last year. 
 
In closing, I want to once again thank all of the Asheville partners for the marvelous work you have done and will do in the future.  At HHS and HRSA, we will continue to look to you for leadership and inspiration.
 
The Asheville model is proof positive that individuals working together in pursuit of a common goal can and do make a difference – a real difference that changes the course of people’s lives for the better. Your work gives hope to recipients who are now able to see or walk across a room without stopping to rest, to men and women who are back at work, and to children who have returned to playgrounds and classrooms.  And you give hope to the thousand of Americans who are waiting to receive an organ transplant and the thousands more who need tissue transplants. Your selfless endeavor is an example to others of how they, too, can act to save and enhance lives through donation.
 
From the seeds planted here, a statewide coalition has grown. This coalition, spearheaded by the American Red Cross, is now up and running, working hard to reach out to all your state Workplace partners to help them:

• Enroll even more card-carrying donors;
• Get more people typed and listed on the National Marrow Registry; and
• Increase blood donation.

With this kind of statewide action, the Workplace Partnership initiative can only continue to flourish.
 
Looking ahead, we still have much we can accomplish together. 
 
For the long term, we need to increase the number of Americans who enroll as potential organ donors.  
 
For the short term, we need to increase the number of people who decide, as many of the donor family representatives here today already decided, to permit the donation of organs from a loved one.
 
Why must we do all of this? You know the answer. Because transplantation works.  It saves lives.
 
What you have accomplished here is a testimony to both the human spirit and the power of organ and tissue donation. Keep going. Stay the course. Take pride in your achievements and know that your tireless effort has and will continue to give hope to many and save countless lives.