Mid-America Transplant

Mid-America Transplant (MT) is a private, nonprofit organ 

procurement organization (OPO) and an eye and tissue bank serving 

84 counties in three states (Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas), with 

a combined population of 4.7 million. Exemplifying its mission 

“we save lives through excellence in organ and tissue donation,” 

MT works with its partner hospitals to procure donated organs 

and tissues and then provide them to transplant centers and tissue 

processors, both in its designated service area and across the country.

This is the second Baldrige Award for MT; the organization was 

honored in the same category in 2015.

Continuous Improvement, Innovation, and 

Sharing to Benefit the Industry

• Mid-America Transplant led the largest industry experience in the 

utilization of free-standing Organ Recovery Centers with 

increasing research to drive outcomes. 

• The organization’s Baldrige journey led to a 167% increase in 

organs transplanted and a 350% increase in tissue donors through 

2020, saving and healing thousands of lives.

• Since its first Baldrige Award in 2015, MT has continued to help 

advance its industry through innovations and sharing of its 

methods and learning. It has published several peer-reviewed 

articles on its novel approaches in areas where it has cultivated 

expertise and freely shares its advances in clinical practices to 

maximize organ use to impact more lives.

• MT’s innovative, future-focused practices include a partnership 

with a local nursing college, through which nursing students 

are educated about MT’s care of donors. In recent years, MT 

has expanded the initiative to include seven community colleges 

and universities.

• MT has forged a local partnership that introduces future funeral 

home directors to MT’s donor services while financially supporting 

students’ professional certifications.

Role-Model Stewardship of Organs/

Tissues Donated

• MT’s results for organs and tissues donated per 1 million people 

are in the top 10% of industry comparisons. These results are 

especially notable given the relatively modest size of MT’s federally 

designated service area population, which ranks 28th among 57 

OPOs across the country.

• MT has earned a top-level (“Tier 1”) status among the nation’s 57 

nonprofit OPOs under a results-based certification rule issued in 

November 2020 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

2021 Award Recipient

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

Highlights

• 167% increase in organs transplanted and 350% increase 

in tissue donors in 2020

• Among the top-performing OPOs nationwide, with more 

than 125 organs transplanted annually per 1 million 

(population) since 2017

• Overall rates of satisfaction by local organ transplant center 

and tissue processor customers sustained above 4.5 on a 

five-point scale since 2017

• Through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, results 

include a very low rate of missed organ referrals (sustained 

near zero from 2017 through 2020) and a best-possible rate 

of timely organ referrals (100% done within 90 minutes 

from the time of the donor’s death)

• Overall workforce engagement consistently exceeds two 

external industry comparisons

 
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

2021 Award Recipient

Mid-America Transplant 

• Demonstrating MT’s values of excellence and stewardship of each 

donor’s life-saving “gift,” the organization has recently achieved 

record-setting results for key measures such as the number of 

organs transplanted annually. For that topline measure, MT is 

among the top-performing OPOs nationwide, with results above 

125 organs per 1 million (population) in 2020 and at or above that 

level since 2017.

• Results for hearts, lungs, livers, and pancreata transplanted, 

respectively, per 1 million people place MT at or above the top 

25% of the nation’s OPOs in 2020, and MT’s results for the number 

of kidneys transplanted per 1 million people are in the top 10% of 

industry comparisons.

Systematic Leadership, for Mission 

Accomplishment and Good Governance

• MT’s Board of Directors (BOD) self-assessment results for the past 

three years show performance at or above OPO partners’ 

comparisons for items such as adherence to mission, financial 

oversight, strategic oversight, and CEO oversight.

• Results for regulatory, accreditation, and compliance demonstrate 

excellent levels sustained over time, with full accreditation achieved 

from all regulatory bodies identified for multiple years.

Evolving Strategy for Long-Term Success

• Through MT’s commitment to continuous improvement, its 

Strategic Thinking Process has evolved from an annual process 

with one- and three-year objectives to the establishment in 2019 

of the organization’s North Star Vision (NSV). The NSV institutes 

a strategic performance map that defines milestones and five-year 

goals for accomplishing the vision.

• MT identifies relevant data and information for its ongoing 

planning, which includes environmental scans, customer and 

market impacts, BOD input, stakeholder feedback, past 

performance data, and regulatory changes.

A Focus on Customer Relationships, 

Yielding Loyalty and Satisfaction

• MT leaders emphasize collaboration in relations with key 

stakeholders, including donor families, hospitals, nonhospital 

referral sources, and customers, with favorable results sustained 

since 2017 for loyalty among customers—particularly for MT’s 

tissue processor and corneal transplant center customers. 

With tissue processor customers, MT has maintained an expanded 

number of contracted relationships for the past four years.

• MT’s rates of customer dissatisfaction, customer complaints, and 

dissatisfaction by service line have been at or near 0% since 2017.

Engaged Employees, Supported by 

Communications, Training, and Benefits

• Senior leaders support high performance by employees through 

systematic communication and development processes, as well 

as benefits that are regularly reviewed to ensure that they meet 

employees’ diverse needs. An example of MT’s uniquely supportive 

practices are the “Mindful Minutes” conversations that supervisors 

have with employees to engage them in a deep level of thought 

and dialogue.

• Among exemplary results, the rate of employee satisfaction with 

the benefits package provided by MT has since 2017 exceeded 

a benchmark from a company that collects data from Baldrige 

framework-using organizations. MT’s overall workforce engagement 

rate has consistently exceeded two external industry comparisons.

Organizational Resilience, Based on 

Robust Processes

• For 2020 and 2021 year-to-date, MT broke records for 22 measures. 

For example, in 2020, MT achieved record-high numbers of organ 

and tissue donors, organs transplanted, tissue donor authorizations, 

and bone donors released (a measure of eligible musculoskeletal 

donations delivered to MT’s tissue processor/customer) per 

1 million people.

• Supply-chain measures that sustained best-possible performance 

trends in recent years include supply availability and charter flight 

delays. Results for both measures have been at or near 100% 

favorable levels since 2017.

• Workforce-related results demonstrate good performance despite 

the pandemic. In particular, consistent staffing has enabled MT to 

meet its needs, by maintaining a reliably steady number of donors 

per coordinator for organ, tissue, and eye donations—for example, 

about 15 organ donors per coordinator every year since 2017. 

• Through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, results included 

a very low rate of missed organ referrals and a best-possible rate 

of timely organ referrals (100% done within 90 minutes from 

donor’s death).

For more information:

Mid-America Transplant

1110 Highlands Plaza Dr. East, Suite 100

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 735-8269

www.midamericatransplant.org

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The Baldrige Program educates organizations of all sizes and 

from all sectors in organizational performance management and 

improvement. We also administer the Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award. Our key services are to identify and recognize 

role-model organizations, share best management practices, 

and help organizations achieve best-in-class performance levels.

We are the only public-private partnership and Presidential award 

program dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. 

For more information on the Baldrige Program: 

www.nist.gov/baldrige | 301-975-2036 | baldrige@nist.gov