Peter Schorsch
Tampa General Hospital is celebrating a record year in 2019, when the hospital performed 585 transplants, eclipsing the hospital’s previous record and placing it among the busiest organ transplant centers in the nation.
That increase means TGH is now ranked No. 6 in transplant volume nationwide. The previous record for the hospital, set in 2011, was 500 transplants.
Tampa General also ranks No. 6 in the nation for kidney transplants in 2019 and No. 10 in the nation for adult liver transplants.
The high number of transplants, paired with Tampa General’s successful outcomes, demonstrates how high-volume, comprehensive surgical centers provide the best and safest results for patients, said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General.
“When surgical teams perform these complex operations more often, their skills and teamwork improve, and patients benefit by receiving the best possible care,” Couris said. “We’re grateful that our transplant teams are able to provide world-class levels of care to our patients and families.”
Performing more transplants means saving more lives, said Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, executive director of TGH’s Advanced Organ Disease & Transplantation Institute.
“Our mission is to improve, extend and save the lives of people with advanced organ disease,” Dhanireddy said. “So when we’re transplanting more organs, we are better meeting the needs of our community. We’re saving more lives.”
The number of transplants performed at Tampa General in 2019 include:
— 358 kidney transplants, including 91 kidney transplants from living donors;
— 145 liver transplants;
— 37 heart transplants;
— 35 lung transplants;
— 10 kidney-pancreas transplants.
In 2018, Tampa General performed its 10,000th transplant, becoming one of a small number of transplant centers nationwide to reach that milestone.
Tampa General, a 1007-bed nonprofit medical center, performs liver, heart, lung, adult and pediatric kidney and pancreas transplants.
