Illinois' first hospital-based donor care center will open Sept. 19 at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network and the medical center confirmed to Becker's.
The new Gift of Hope Organ Donor Care Center at Rush serves as an intensive care and surgical unit for deceased organ donors. It includes six intensive care bays, two operating rooms, and 24/7 medical and allied services.
Plans to establish the center were unveiled by Rush and the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network in October.
"Rush is proud to work with Gift of Hope in serving our region's families, hospitals and patients through the Gift of Hope Organ Donor Care Center at RUSH — building on our long-standing work together and our priority on increasing organ and tissue donation and advancing equitable access to transplantation regionally and nationally," Omar Lateef, DO, Rush president and CEO, said in a news release at the time.
Gift of Hope is among more than 50 organ procurement organizations that make up the organ donation system in the U.S.
Gift of Hope and Rush project the new center will serve as many as 250 donors in its first year.