Mid-America Transplant

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2015 Award Recipient, Nonprofit

Credit: Mid-America Transplant Services

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Highest-Ranking Official*
Dean F. Kappel
President and CEO

Public Affairs Contact

*At time of award

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For more information
Mid-America Transplant
1110 Highlands Plaza Dr. East, Suite 100
St. Louis, MO 63110
(314) 735-8269
Baldrige [at] midamericatransplant.org (Baldrige[at]midamericatransplant[dot]org)
http://www.midamericatransplant.org

Mid-America Transplant is a private, nonprofit organ procurement organization and eye and tissue bank serving a designated service area (DSA) of 84 counties in eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and northeastern Arkansas. Mid-America Transplant works with its partner hospitals to procure donated organs and tissues and then provide them to transplant centers and tissue processors, both in the DSA and across the country. Mid-America Transplant also operates three stations at Department of Motor Vehicles offices in the Greater St. Louis, Mo., area that support its mission by making it easy for motorists to register as donors while renewing drivers' licenses or automobile registrations. With an annual budget of $39 million and a workforce of 193 employees, Mid-America Transplant operates from its headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., and a satellite location in Springfield, Mo. A unique concept is the Mid-America Transplant Family House, which provides short- and intermediate-term housing for transplant patients and their families from outside the St. Louis area and gives Mid-America Transplant leaders and staff the opportunity to interact with them.

Highlights 

• To facilitate organ and tissue donations, Mid-America Transplant staff members are in residence at the organization's key partner hospitals. This innovation has resulted in a 0.08 percent rate of missed organ referrals since 2012, outperforming the reported best-in-class industry benchmark of 2 percent.
• In 2001, Mid-America Transplant built the nation's first stand-alone organ recovery facility, a system that has significantly reduced the expense of procuring organs compared to the cost of in-hospital organ procurement. Since 2012, the cost-per-donor for in-house cases has decreased from approximately $7,000 to under $4,000, compared to approximately $20,000 when completed in the hospital.
• In 2015, Mid-America Transplant was selected as a "top workplace" by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. The overall employee retention rate approaches 90 percent and has exceeded the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations industry average since 2012.
• Mid-America Transplant uses customer data to determine their satisfaction with the donation process. Customer complaints per case have been close to zero since 2013 for eye and tissue donations and declined from approximately 7 percent in 2013 to approximately 3 percent in 2015 for organ donations.

Innovative Methods Save Lives

• Once a referral is made to Mid-America Transplant, its staff members compassionately approach the patient's family to offer the opportunity for donation. For all deaths reported in the Mid-America Transplant DSA, only 0.7 percent are eligible for organ donation and only 14 percent are eligible for tissue donation, which makes conversion from eligible donors to actual donors critical. In spite of these difficult odds, Mid-America Transplant ranks among the nation's leaders in numbers of donated organs transplanted: first in lungs in 2014 and second in 2015, second in kidneys in 2015, seventh for livers in 2015, and in the top 25 percent for both hearts and pancreata in 2015.
• To facilitate organ and tissue donations, Mid-America Transplant staff members are in residence at the organization's key partner hospitals. This innovation has resulted in a 0.08 percent rate of missed organ referrals since 2012, outperforming the reported best-in-class industry benchmark of 2 percent.
• Mid-America Transplant's distinctive "industry-first" innovations include three fully equipped operating rooms, cardiac catheterization capabilities, and a CT scanner at its headquarters to support in-house organ, tissue, and cornea donation. In pursuit of Mid-America Transplant's vision, its highly competent workforce capitalizes on these innovations to increase the number of viable organs and tissues available for transplant patients.
• Mid-America Transplant maintains a national top 25th percentile ranking of just under four organs transplanted per donor and currently ranks fourth in the nation for the number of total organs transplanted per million population.

Keeping Costs Low and Results High

• In 2001, Mid-America Transplant built the nation's first stand-alone organ recovery facility, a system that has significantly reduced the expense of procuring organs compared to the cost of in-hospital organ procurement. Since 2012, the cost-per-donor for in-house cases has decreased from approximately $7,000 to under $4,000, compared to approximately $20,000 when completed in the hospital. The savings have allowed Mid-America Transplant to keep its acquisition fees stable for seven years. Other organ procurement organizations across the country are adopting the in-house recovery system.
• Mid-America Transplant's strong financial position is supported by industry leading results for consolidated operations. The organization's total gross revenue, reaching about $40 million in 2015, has increased annually since 2012 and now exceeds the top 25 percent in the industry. Mid-America Transplant operating reserves also have increased since 2012 to almost $30 million and exceed reported best-in-class levels. In addition, the Mid-America Transplant net margin of approximately 25 percent of its gross revenue has exceeded industry benchmarks since 2012.

Caring About the People Who Care

• In 2015, Mid-America Transplant was selected as a "top workplace" by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.
• Supporting the Mid-America Transplant core competency of having a mission-driven workforce, staff members have an exceptional level of understanding of how their individual positions align with the Mid-America Transplant mission of "saving lives through excellence in organ and tissue donation." The "connection to mission" for Mid-America Transplant employees has been measured at 100 percent since 2011, setting the national benchmark.
• Mid-America Transplant reports "overall workforce engagement" of about 80 percent, a rate that has met or exceeded national best-in-class comparisons since 2012.
• Annual training expenditures per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee have met or exceeded reported best-in-class levels of $2,500 per FTE. With staff satisfaction with training and development approaching 90 percent, Mid-America Transplant has exceeded national benchmarks since 2012.
• Mid-America Transplant's workforce philosophy of "We take care of 'Our People' so they can take care of others" is reflected in a comprehensive benefits package, a wellness program, and an organization-wide incentive plan. Overall satisfaction of the Mid-America Transplant staff with benefits is approaching 100 percent, exceeding best-in-class performance. Employees list satisfaction with benefits as one of the top three reasons they work at Mid-America Transplant.
• The overall employee retention rate approaches 90 percent and has exceeded the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations industry average since 2012.

Customer Focus Improves Service

• Mid-America Transplant acts as a responsible steward of the "Gift of Life" by coordinating the placement of donated organs and tissues to its key customer groups: local organ transplant centers, tissue processors, and local corneal transplant centers. Mid-America Transplant listens to, interacts with, and observes these customers to obtain actionable information. Mid-America Transplant also engages customer-affiliated experts as part of its board of directors and includes customers in the development of new and improved products, services, and value-generating processes.
• Mid-America Transplant has set the benchmark of close to 5 on a 5-point scale for the measure of satisfaction and engagement with its transplant physician customers by collecting, sharing, and utilizing their input at all phases of the donation life cycle.
• Mid-America Transplant uses data from customers to determine their satisfaction with the donation process. Customer complaints per case have been close to zero since 2013 for eye and tissue donations and declined from approximately 7 percent in 2013 to approximately 3 percent in 2015 for organ donations.

Strategic Thinking Yields Continuous Improvement

• Throughout the year, the Mid-America Transplant Strategic Thinking Process involves continuous strategic development, implementation, discussions, environmental scans, industry reviews, and input from key stakeholders. This enables Mid-America Transplant to be agile in identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing change initiatives that respond to strategic challenges and opportunities. Mid-America Transplant consistently achieves close to 100 percent of the action plans derived through the Strategic Thinking Process.
• The Mid-America Transplant Performance Management System includes transparent cascading scorecards which align organizational goals through individual performance. Staff members and key Mid-America Transplant partners have real-time access to data, advanced reporting services, and customized analytics. This provides for organizational agility and the ability to act on strategic opportunities.

Serving People in Special Ways

• Mid-America Transplant's financial viability has enabled it to establish and fund an industry-first foundation that provides enhanced support to transplant patients and donor families, as well as education on disease prevention for the community. This fund has grown from an initial $7 million in 2011 to a total current endowment of more than $33 million in 2014. This exceeds the approximately $10 million average of three similar funds started by other U.S. organ procurement organizations.
• Through its Center for Life, Mid-America Transplant has improved services for donor families by addressing their bereavement needs. Mid-America Transplant also constructed a donor memorial monument and park for donor and recipient families to gather, remember, and honor their loved ones.
• Mid-America Transplant policy is set by a voluntary, community-based board of directors composed of hospital executives, physicians, donor family members, and representatives from other professions and disciplines including ethics, law, and religion. The Mid-America Transplant CEO reports to the board, and the board evaluates the CEO's performance through a defined process that includes ongoing monitoring of performance measures.

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