Transplant Quality & Recognitions

For more than 40 years, the transplant team at University Health has helped people across Texas and the nation live longer, healthier lives through life-saving transplants.

When choosing a transplant hospital, experience matters. At University Health Transplant Institute, you’ll find expert care for kidney, liver and lung transplants, all in one place. 

Celebrating 6,500 Transplants

Our team has a long history of reaching important milestones.

In 1987, we performed the first heart and double-lung transplant in South Texas. Since then, we’ve continued to change lives.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, an all-female transplant team performed our 5,000th transplant. The patient, a 14-year-old boy Hayes Atkins, experienced lifelong kidney issues and received a living kidney donation from his mother, making him the 5,000^th transplant patient at our hospital. Hayes and his family join a community of people who have received life-saving care at University Health Transplant Institute.

Since Hayes’s surgery, we have performed more than 6,800 transplants and continue to help more patients every day.

Achieving Better Transplant Care

We are proud to offer:

• The best kidney and liver transplant and survival rates in Texas, exceeding national standards
• Expertise as the first in the nation to offer liver-paired live donation.
• The most experienced lung transplant program in South Texas, as we performed the first lung transplantation for the treatment of emphysema in North America
• Coordinated and streamlined paired liver and kidney donations
• Robust living donor transplant programs
• Champion for Life program
• Minimally invasive, precise da Vinci® Robotic Surgical System option for some liver and kidney transplant surgeries

Nationally Recognized Nursing Care

Magnet Award

You’ll get the best nursing care available from our Magnet®-recognized health care system. Magnet nurses at University Health are skilled professionals who provide high-quality care, save lives and improve patient outcomes. This prestigious recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is the gold standard in measuring nursing excellence.

Accredited Cancer Care

If you have cancer and your best treatment option is an organ transplant, feel confident you’ll have access to expert cancer and transplant doctors and surgeons and improved outcomes.

Count on a wide range of superior cancer services at University Health because the accredits our programs. That means we can diagnose, treat, rehabilitate and support patients with cancer and their families. CoC accreditation is the hallmark of our program’s commitment to patient-centered cancer care.

The Joint Commission-Certified Palliative Care

If you need supportive care during your transplant journey, rest assured you’ll get exceptional patient and family-centered care to enhance your quality of life. We are one of only six health systems in Texas to achieve the , the national accrediting body for hospitals.

Centers of Excellence

Recognition as a Center of Excellence (COE) requires expertise, following a comprehensive evaluation process, value and a track record of excellence in treating complex medical conditions.

University Health’s kidney, liver and lung transplant programs are Centers of Excellence for several major health plans and organizations, including:

• Aetna
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
• Bridges to Excellence
• Children’s Hospital Association
• Cigna Life Source
• OptumHealth
• Superior Health Plan Insurance
• LifeTrac

Increasing Organ Transplant Access Model

This kidney transplant hospital has been selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in the Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model. The IOTA Model aims to increase access to life-saving transplants for patients living with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and reduce Medicare expenditures.

The University Transplant Institute uses established guidelines to assess whether someone is a good candidate for a kidney transplant. These guidelines help guide decision-making, but every patient is evaluated individually, and special circumstances may be considered on a case-by-case basis.