Marketers at organ procurement organizations and hospitals across the country, desperate to try to find a way to sell the organ donation idea to the public, are beginning to think outside the box. While they're still fighting an uphill battle to raise awareness about the issue, they are scoring support from celebrities, government organizations and others who have set up organizations to encourage donations.
To understand the nature of the battle, consider this: Nationally, in 1995, there were 15,000 organs available for transplantation and 50,000 individuals waiting for transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing in New York.
Several months ago, the same national organization had signed up basketball star Michael Jordan for a marketing campaign. He is featured in television ads, billboards and posters that were broadcast and posted across the country. The PSA campaign aims to raise awareness and motivate people to tell their families they want to donate. The Slogan is: "Share Your Life. Share Your Decision."
Local organizations can piggyback this campaign with slogan-emblazoned book marks, T-shirts and bumper stickers. Hospitals across the country are becoming a little more creative with proactive approaches to organ procurement.
Catch Them At The MVA
One of the most visible marketing techniques for organ donation has been servicing motor vehicle bureaus with promotional materials. While most states have laws that require motorists to check off whether or not they would like to be an organ donor when registering for a license --informational materials are usually not available.
Beginning this month, Colorado motorists will be asked whether they want to contribute $1 with their driver's license fees to public education programs on organ donation and transplantation.
To bolster the effort, the Transplant Council of the Rockies, a nonprofit coalition of donor organizations, developed pamphlets and posters on donor education that will be used in motor vehicle offices throughout the state.
"They are also asked whether they want to sign the organ-tissue donor form when they apply for or renew their licenses," said Melinda Stewart, spokesperson for the effort. "The educational materials will influence people to give more because they will know more about the cause."
Take It Out Of The Doctor's Hands
Changing your communications efforts may also help push organ donations at your hospital. For example, many times health professionals such as doctors and nurses feel uncomfortable asking a patient's family about organ donation and as a result broach the subject in a negative way: They may start their request with "Unfortunately, I have to ask you..." or "I'm forced to ask you...".
Four Buffalo, N.Y., hospitals saw that to be the case and changed their patient communications efforts. Instead of asking their staff to request a family to donate the organ of a dying loved one --they hired a third party.
Buffalo General Hospital, Millard Fillmore hospitals, Erie County Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Buffalo _ joined a program called the Routine Referral Hospital Demonstration Program, which requires the local hospitals to call Upstate New York Transplant Services Inc. in Buffalo after every death.
Counselors from the service are dispatched to the hospitals to determine whether the person is an appropriate donor. The transplant services counselor then becomes the person who asks the family if procurement is possible.
It takes the task out of the hands of the medical professional, who had been recognized by the family as a caregiver. It can be difficult for the doctor or nurse to switch roles and ask for organs or tissue, said Myron Bennett, director of recovery operations in the transplant services. "Now, we can seperate those two issues and try to save some lives," he added.
Thanks To Mickey
Finding a famous person can be helpful in stimulating public acceptance and media coverage of organ donation, organ procurement marketers have found. Usually the media is attracted to well-known patients or victims such as Nicholas Green who donated his 7-year-old son's organs when the boy was killed by a bandit while on vacation in Italy.
The Mickey Mantle Foundation, a Dallas-based group founded by the Mickey Mantle family to encourage organ donation has seen particular success particularly with the media in its efforts to increase donations to the South West Organ Bank in Dallas.
Donors join "Mickey's Team" and carry a new baseball card --actually an organ donation card.
The foundation, entering its second full year, is named after the famous baseball player who received a new liver June 8, 1995, but died of cancer Aug. 13.
Since the family's foundation was founded in August, more than 5 million donor cards have been circulated. During the Texas Rangers' just completed three-game series against the New York Yankees, 48 volunteers from the Southwest Organ Bank in Dallas distributed approximately 22,000 organ donor cards at the ballpark.
When Mantle died, Major League Baseball took a leading role in the organ donor card campaign. The 28 clubs collectively handed out 1 million cards.
Officials at the Southwest Organ Bank say they now get hundreds of calls each week. The Dallas and New York sites have shown the greatest amount of phone traffic because of Mantle's influence, however, other hospitals interested in the Mantle Foundation can call them directly.
(Southwest Organ Bank 214/821-1931; United Network for Organ Sharing 800/292-9537; Upstate New York Transplant Services Inc.,716/ 853-6667)