Skip to main content

Hospice and long-term care partners

Thank you for your partnership honoring tissue and eye donation decisions. Donation can help families as they begin their grief journey and is an important topic for families to discuss as part of their end-of-life choices, especially if their loved one hasn’t documented a lifetime decision about donation.

the process

How to refer a patient

To preserve potential for donation, all patients must be referred WITHIN 1 HOUR if the patient has cardiac time of death or family mentions donation.

Call LifeGift: 1-800-633-6562

Patient information that may be requested:

  • Demographics:
    – Caller name and company
    – Patient’s name and location-name of facility, address and phone number
    – DOB, gender and race
    – Cardiac time of death or time last seen alive
  • Medical history:
    – Height and weight
    – Include all diagnoses, including cause of death and past medical history
    – WBC’s, temps, and any fluids given
    – Physical assessment: trauma, open sores, infection, jaundice and edema
  • Family:
    – Legal next of kin. Has family mentioned donation?
    – Family contacts and phone numbers
    – Healthcare directive
    – Funeral home information
    – Medical Examiner involvement

Hospice partner FAQs

Who can be a donor?

A person’s age or health should not prevent anyone from registering as a donor. Most health conditions do not prevent donation and age is not a factor. There is no age restriction on skin donation and the oldest organ donor was 95!

What can be donated?

Heart valves (when heart is not otherwise recovered for a solid organ transplant), connective tissue, skin, corneas and more can be donated by people who pass away at home or long-term care facility. Patients must be on a ventilator in a hospital to donate organs.   

Who makes the decision about donation?

If someone has not documented their decision on a driver’s license, online through the donor registry, etc., LifeGift will ask the family to decide at the time of death.

For donation, will a family need to complete any paperwork?

Before donation can occur, a medical and social history survey is required to be completed by family after time of death. This information is essential to maximizing the gift of donation.

Will there be a cost for donation?

A family will incur no expenses associated with donation.

Is a traditional funeral service an option?

Donation does not prevent an open-casket funeral service or any type of viewing.

What type of support will a family receive following donation?

LifeGift provides a family support program including grief resources and donation updates.

Have more questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact our LifeGift hospice liaison,
Shante’ Wells, Director of Donation Systems at swells@lifegift.org.