Christiana Care is a national bone marrow donor performance leader

The National Marrow Donor Program recognized Christiana Care as a national performance leader in the collection of bone marrow for 2011.

The Bone Marrow Transplant Program, led by Frank Beardell, M.D., medical director of the Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Program, celebrates its 16th anniversary in August.

In a letter to Dr. Beardell and Bone Marrow Transplant Coordinator Donna Kerr, RN, National Marrow Donor Program CEO Jeffrey W. Chell, M.D., recognized Christiana Care’s excellence in meeting service and quality indicators for donor care, product integrity, data submission and overall service.

“We have had a total of 168 National Marrow Donor Program donors since the first donor in August 1996,” Kerr said. Most donors come from an international donor registry, having joined in most cases as a result of a donor drive for a family member or friend in need of a transplant. But some donors are “unrelated,” she explains. “They have joined on their own accord, either through advertisement from the National Marrow Donor Program, a drive organized through work or school, or because a family member has received a transplant and they wanted to give back.”