OGDENSBURG -- Claxton Hepburn Medical Center has joined a national organ donor campaign to educate employees, patients, visitors, and the community about the crucial need for organ, eye, and tissue donation.

The hospital is now a part of the Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network in the National Hospital Organ Donation Campaign, sponsored by the Division of Transplantation, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This campaign challenges individuals to register as donors and provide them with opportunities to sign up. The campaign has helped to register more than 419,000 people to state registries and aims to add more donor designations by May 2018.

“The importance of becoming an organ donor is crucial, there simply are not enough organs needed for the hundreds of thousands of people on the transplant waiting list.” “What better gift is there to give, than the gift of life?” said CHMC’s Organ Donation Liaison Stefany Carville, RN.

Claxton-Hepburn’s goal is to register 50 new organ donor designations to the state registry to contribute to the national goal and to earn national recognition from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for conducting activities that promote enrollment in state organ donor registries.

“We will earn points for each activity we implement between October 1 and April 30, 2018 and will be recognized nationally for collecting enough points to reach a platinum, gold, silver, or bronze level,” explained Carville.

CHMC is urging the entire hospital community to help them educate staff members, patients and their families, visitors, and the extended community on the critical need for organ donation.

To learn more and become involved, contact Carville at sclark@chmed.org.

There is more info at www.donatelife.ny.gov.