Mid-America Transplant Services

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

procurement organization and eye and tissue bank serving a 

designated service area (DSA) of 84 counties in eastern Missouri, 

southern Illinois, and northeastern Arkansas. MTS works with its 

partner hospitals to procure donated organs and tissues and then 

provide them to transplant centers and tissue processors, both in the

DSA and across the country. MTS also operates three stations at 

Department of Motor Vehicles offices in the Greater St. Louis, Mo., 

area that support its mission by making it easy for motorists to 

register as donors while renewing drivers’ licenses or automobile 

registrations. With an annual budget of $39 million and a workforce of 

193 employees, MTS operates from its headquarters in St. Louis, Mo.,

and a satellite location in Springfield, Mo. A unique concept is the 

MTS Family House, which provides short- and intermediate-term 

housing for transplant patients and their families from outside the 

St. Louis area and gives MTS leaders and staff the opportunity to 

interact with them.

Innovative Methods Save Lives

• For all deaths reported in the MTS DSA, only 0.7 percent are 

eligible for organ donation and only 14 percent are eligible for 

tissue donation, which makes conversion from eligible donors 

to actual donors critical. In spite of these difficult odds, MTS 

ranks among the nation’s leaders in numbers of donated organs 

transplanted: first in lungs in 2014 and second in 2015, second 

in kidneys in 2015, seventh for livers in 2015, and in the top 

25 percent for both hearts and pancreata in 2015.

• To facilitate organ and tissue donations, MTS staff members are 

in residence at the organization’s key partner hospitals. This 

innovation has resulted in a 0.08 percent rate of missed organ 

referrals since 2012, outperforming the reported best-in-class 

industry benchmark of 2 percent. 

• MTS’s distinctive “industry-first” innovations include three fully 

equipped operating rooms, cardiac catheterization capabilities, 

and a CT scanner at its headquarters to support in-house organ, 

tissue, and cornea donation.

• MTS maintains a national top 25th percentile ranking of just under 

four organs transplanted per donor and currently ranks fourth in 

the nation for the number of total organs transplanted per million 

population.

Keeping Costs Low and Results High

• In 2001, MTS built the nation’s first stand-alone organ recovery 

facility, a system that has significantly reduced the expense 

of procuring organs compared to the cost of in-hospital organ 

2015 Award Recipient

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

Highlights

• To facilitate organ and tissue donations, MTS staff members 

are in residence at the organization’s key partner hospitals. 

This innovation has resulted in a 0.08 percent rate of missed 

organ referrals since 2012, outperforming the reported 

best-in-class industry benchmark of 2 percent. 

• In 2001, MTS built the nation’s first stand-alone organ 

recovery facility, a system that has significantly reduced 

the expense of procuring organs compared to the cost of 

in-hospital organ procurement. Since 2012, the cost-perdonor for in-house cases has decreased from approximately 

$7,000 to under $4,000, compared to approximately 

$20,000 when completed in the hospital.

• The overall employee retention rate approaches 90 percent 

and has exceeded the Association of Organ Procurement 

Organizations industry average since 2012.

• Customer complaints per case have been close to zero 

since 2013 for eye and tissue donations and declined from 

approximately 7 percent in 2013 to approximately 3 percent 

in 2015 for organ donations.
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

2015 Award Recipient

Mid-America Transplant Services

procurement. Since 2012, the cost-per-donor for in-house cases has 

decreased from approximately $7,000 to under $4,000, compared 

to approximately $20,000 when completed in the hospital. 

The savings have allowed MTS to keep its acquisition fees stable 

for seven years. Other organ procurement organizations across 

the country are adopting the in-house recovery system.

• The organization’s total gross revenue, reaching about $40 million 

in 2015, has increased annually since 2012 and now exceeds 

the top 25 percent in the industry. MTS operating reserves also 

have increased since 2012 to almost $30 million and exceed 

reported best-in-class levels. In addition, the MTS net margin of 

approximately 25 percent of its gross revenue has exceeded 

industry benchmarks since 2012.

Caring About the People Who Care

• In 2015, MTS was selected as a “top workplace” by the St. Louis 

Post-Dispatch newspaper. 

• The “connection to mission” for MTS employees has been measured 

at 100 percent since 2011, setting the national benchmark. 

• MTS reports “overall workforce engagement” of about 80 percent, 

a rate that has met or exceeded national best-in-class comparisons 

since 2012. 

• Annual training expenditures per full-time equivalent (FTE)

employee have met or exceeded reported best-in-class levels 

of $2,500 per FTE. With staff satisfaction with training and 

development approaching 90 percent, MTS has exceeded 

national benchmarks since 2012. 

• Overall satisfaction of the MTS staff with benefits is approaching 

100 percent, exceeding best-in-class performance. Employees list 

satisfaction with benefits as one of the top three reasons they work 

at MTS. 

• The overall employee retention rate approaches 90 percent and 

has exceeded the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations 

industry average since 2012.

Customer Focus Improves Service

• MTS acts as a responsible steward of the “Gift of Life” by 

coordinating the placement of donated organs and tissues to its key 

customer groups. MTS also engages customer-affiliated experts 

as part of its board of directors and includes customers in the 

development of new and improved products, services, and 

value-generating processes. 

• MTS has set the benchmark of close to 5 on a 5-point scale for the 

measure of satisfaction and engagement with its transplant 

physician customers by collecting, sharing, and utilizing their 

input at all phases of the donation life cycle. 

• Customer complaints per case have been close to zero since 

2013 for eye and tissue donations and declined from 

approximately 7 percent in 2013 to approximately 3 percent in 

2015 for organ donations.

Strategic Thinking Yields Continuous 

Improvement

• Throughout the year, the MTS Strategic Thinking Process involves 

continuous strategic development, implementation, discussions, 

environmental scans, industry reviews, and input from key 

stakeholders. MTS consistently achieves close to 100 percent of the 

action plans derived through the Strategic Thinking Process.

• The MTS Performance Management System includes transparent 

cascading scorecards which align organizational goals through 

individual performance. Staff members and key MTS partners have 

real-time access to data, advanced reporting services, and 

customized analytics.

Serving People in Special Ways

• MTS’s financial viability has enabled it to establish and fund an 

industry-first foundation that provides enhanced support to 

transplant patients and donor families, as well as education on 

disease prevention for the community. This fund has grown from 

an initial $7 million in 2011 to a total current endowment of 

more than $33 million in 2014. This exceeds the approximately 

$10 million average of three similar funds started by other U.S. 

organ procurement organizations.

• Through its Center for Life, MTS has improved services for 

donor families by addressing their bereavement needs. MTS also 

constructed a donor memorial monument and park for donor and 

recipient families to gather, remember, and honor their loved ones.

For more information:

Mid-America Transplant Services 

1110 Highlands Plaza Dr. East, Suite 100

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 735-8269

Baldrige@mts-stl.org

http://www.mts-stl.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 Baldrige, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige, 

call (301) 975-2036, or e-mail us at baldrige@nist.gov.