The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently recognized Palmdale Regional Medical Center for high organ donation rates, and will award it with a bronze medal of honor in an October ceremony. The department named 22 hospitals in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area as meeting standards for excellence in organ donation. The HHS Medal of Honor is awarded in three categories to hospitals with a minimum of eight potential organ donors during a 24-month period from April 2010 through March 2012. The medical center had 12 recovered organs for donation during that period. “We are indeed honored to collaborate with OneLegacy, along with the dedicated families of patients, and the patients themselves, who make such a generous decision to donate organs. It is a way to bring positivity and certainly, legacy, to a situation where grief is also being faced,” said medical center CEO Larry Coomes in a written statement. OneLegacy is the non-profit organization that works on organ and tissue donation in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area, said PRMC. It is the largest of the 58 federally designated organ recovery agencies in the U.S. The awards ceremony will take place at the 7th National Learning Congress for the Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice in Texas in October. Leah Gillis