Tri-State area hospitals are seeking to reassure patients and the community following the federal government announcing it will begin decertifying Network for Hope. The organ donation organization has headquarters in Cincinnati and Louisville and serves Greater Cincinnati, as well as all of Kentucky and parts of Indiana and West Virginia.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday it will begin the process of decertifying the organization. The move follows a federal investigation that found the group had prepared numerous patients for organ donation while they were still alive.
As Kentucky Public Radio reports, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy said “the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has reviewed 351 cases between 2021 and 2024, and found nearly 30% showed ‘concerning failures,’ including many in which patients had neurological signs that should rule out donation. Network for Hope covers Kentucky and parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana.”
Local reaction
Tri-State hospitals issued a joint statement through the Health Collaborative Wednesday afternoon reiterating the importance of organ donation and saying it’s “imperative that organ donation stay uninterrupted here locally.”…