A Wrong Fix for Tampa and the Nation’s Organ Transplant System
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A Wrong Fix for Tampa and the Nation’s Organ Transplant System
The change risks introducing chaos and litigation into a system that thrives on coordination and trust.
To run a successful organ transplant system, procurement organizations must work closely with surgical facilities.
Tampa Bay Times
Published April 17, 2025
Opinion by Anthony Watkins, MD, of SID&T
Few lifesaving medical procedures rely as deeply on partnership and coordination as organ transplantation. The moment a patient receives the call for a potential organ is only possible because a grieving family, during an incredibly vulnerable time, agrees to give the gift of life. A dedicated Organ Procurement Organization then works with hospitals to make that miracle possible.
Here in Tampa Bay, we have much to be proud of. In 2024, Tampa General Transplant Institute led the nation in transplant volume, performing 889 lifesaving transplants, including 500 kidney, 279 liver, 51 heart and 42 lung transplants. This success is built on strong collaboration between our transplant center and our regional procurement organization, Lifelink of Florida, a federally certified nonprofit responsible for recovering donated organs.
This story of collaboration is echoed nationwide, as records continue to be broken in organ donation and transplantation. Yet, looming uncertainty threatens to disrupt this progress.
In 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced a regulatory rule that could result in the closure of more than half of the nation’s 55 Organ Procurement Organizations. These organizations serve as critical links between donor families, hospitals and transplant surgeons like myself. The potential impact on patient care is significant.
While the intention of increasing accountability and improving outcomes is commendable, implementing this rule has ignored years of peer-reviewed science showing significant statistical flaws in its performance metrics. For example, Science in Donation & Transplant, where I serve on the advisory board, has compiled a robust body of this research on its website.
In 2024, the Health Resources and Services Administration also censored research that critically analyzed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services performance metrics for Organ Procurement Organizations. This action raises serious concerns about transparency and the suppression of scientific discourse.
This is not a partisan issue. Concerns about regulatory oversight in this space have persisted across multiple administrations over decades.
