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NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center was named a recipient of two Transplant Program Awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) for its outstanding performance on liver and lung transplantation.

The liver program, under the auspices of NYP/Columbia's Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation, achieved the silver level — the highest for any hospital in New York State — for its high rate of liver transplantation and low mortality rate among patients on the waitlist for a liver. Only five other hospitals in the country achieved the silver level or higher for liver.

NYP/Columbia's Center for Lung Disease and Transplantation received the bronze award for its lung program. No other hospital in New York State received the bronze or higher.

"NewYork-Presbyterian is proud of our multidisciplinary, comprehensive organ transplantation services," says Dr. Jean Emond, chief of transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and the Thomas S. Zimmer Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. "These awards from Health and Human Services recognize our longstanding commitment to providing patients with outstanding care when giving them the gift of life."

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's organ transplantation program is the oldest and largest in the United States. In 2011, NYP performed 724 transplants, including heart, kidney, lung, liver and pancreas.

The Transplant Program Awards were developed by a special task force of the Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice — an HHS initiative that brings together donation and transplantation professionals and hospital staff to identify and share best practices — with assistance from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). The awards are based on two years of data through March 2012 and recognize better-than-expected performance on post-transplant survival rates, transplant rates, and mortality rates after being placed on the waitlist.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center was also recognized with a Silver Medal in HHS's Medal of Honor for Organ Donation program for achieving and sustaining national goals for organ donation, including a donation rate of 75 percent or more of eligible donors.

The awards were presented by HHS at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) annual National Learning Congress in Grapevine, Texas.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, based in New York City, is the nation's largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital, with 2,409 beds. The Hospital has nearly 2 million inpatient and outpatient visits in a year, including 12,797 deliveries and 195,294 visits to its emergency departments. NewYork-Presbyterian's 6,144 affiliated physicians and 19,376 staff provide state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division. One of the most comprehensive health care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education and community service. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the nation's leading medical colleges: Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.