PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Receiving a much-needed organ donation is often a matter of life or death.
However, despite the record number of organ transplants last year, there aren't enough donations to meet the demand.
Just last week, the Biden administration outlined a plan to overhaul the system that has remained unchanged for decades.
"The United States organ donation system is the envy of the world," Gift Of Life Donor Program President and CEO Richard Hasz.
It's a system under strain.
"There are 100,000 people who are currently on our waiting list," Hasz said. "In our area alone in that Eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware, there's 5,000."
Despite an increase in donations over the last decade and a half, only one-third of people waiting for an organ are getting transplants.
Hasz says an average of 17 people on the wait list die every day in the U.S.
Statewide, more than 6,600 people are on the waitlist for an organ transplant.
"There are not enough organs to go around," Hasz said.
On top of the shortage, the United Network for Organ Sharing nonprofit, or UNOS, is the sole national entity responsible for the transplant system.
That soon could change as medical experts, politicians and patients blame the system for its current issues, which ultimately cost lives.
"I think the process on how we match patients and organs, and that efficiency, can definitely be improved," Hasz said. "Incorporating new technologies to help preserve organs."
The Biden Administration says it will attempt to break up UNOS and modernize the system.
Under the plan, the retrieval of organs, establishment of policies, and operation of the matching system will no longer fall under one organization.
Hasz believes the change has the potential to help people hoping for a second chance at life.
"We have to ensure that during that transition we don't go backwards, and that we are always moving forward because lives are at stake, patients are at stake," Hasz said. "They need us to get this right."
Bids for new contracts will open this fall.
In a statement, the United Network for Organ Sharing said:
UNOS supports Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) plan to introduce additional reforms into the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system. We also stand united with HRSA in our shared goal to get as many donor organs as possible to patients in need while increasing accountability, transparency and oversight.
We welcome a competitive and open bidding process for the next Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract to advance our efforts to save as many lives as possible, as equitably as possible. We believe we have the experience and expertise required to best serve the nation’s patients and to help implement HRSA’s proposed initiatives.
Numerous components of HRSA’s plan also align with our new action agenda, which is a list of specific proposals we outlined earlier this year aimed at driving improvement across the system.
We are committed to working with HRSA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Congress and others who care about this system so deeply to assist in carrying out these reforms and to do our part to improve how we serve America’s organ donors, transplant patients and their families.
As of April 23, 2023, 103,910 people in the U.S. are in need of an organ transplant.