The announcement was made Monday morning during a press conference.

Last year, 489 organs were successfully transplanted at the Intermountain Health Adult Transplant program, located at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, an increase from 414 in 2023 and a growth of over 200% during the past five years.

“This has been an historic year for our transplant program, broadly speaking for kidney, liver and heart,” said Dr. Donald Morris, Intermountain Health kidney transplant medical director. “None of this is possible without the generosity of the people who step forward and sign up and register to be a donor at the time of their passing; someone’s loved one who, at the time of their passing, decides to proceed with organ donation; and also importantly with living donation where people step forward out of the generosity and kindness to donate an organ, both kidney and/or liver.”

Intermountain Health’s kidney transplant program has one of the shortest wait times in the nation, averaging 109 days from active listing to transplant, according to the organization. Many other programs in the country have a three- to five-year wait list.

“Due to our ability to accept organs that other programs may not use, we are able to do this safely and achieve some of the best outcomes in the nation,” Morris said. “This success is attributed to the expertise and experience of our team of nephrologists, surgeons and transplant caregivers who are paving the way for new organ acceptance practices in the United States, which will provide increased access to transplantation.”

JoAnna Stephens, Intermountain Health’s adult transplant director, said the company has one of the few programs operating in the Mountain West, making the expansion of services to underserved areas a primary focus of its efforts.

“Our mission is to provide access to transplantation for patients, no matter where they live, ensuring they receive the life-saving care they need,” she said.

Last year, 32% of Intermountain Health’s new transplant patients came from areas outside of Utah that do not have transplant programs, including Idaho and Nevada.

Three years ago, Provo resident Tom McLelland’s family took to social media in the hopes of helping him find a new kidney. The 64-year-old diabetes patient had gone into kidney failure and was being treated with kidney dialysis three times a week. Nearly 20 of his family members and friends had tested to see if they were a match, but none were successful.

Then they created a social media page entitled “A Kidney for Tom,” which resulted in him receiving a transplant from a total stranger.

“Because of social media, I have a new friend, a new kidney and a new life,” he said. “While it only takes one person and one kidney, it takes many of us considering, asking and sharing.”

The median wait time for a liver transplant at Intermountain Health is 22 days after being placed on the list, also making it one of the shortest wait times in the nation. The new organ-saving technology being used by Intermountain has helped the liver transplant program save organs and lives of those waiting for an organ in order to survive. Last year, 2,760 new patients were treated, with 41% coming from outside of the state. With the new technology, the transplant program saw 385% growth between 20218-2024, placing it as the fourth-fastest growing liver program in the nation.

“This unprecedented growth in organ transplantation, and to now be one of the largest transplant enterprises and liver transplant programs in the United States, reflects both the actions of an exceptional multidisciplinary team and the generosity of an ever-increasing community that understands the importance of organ donation, in both living donation and donation after death,” said. Dr. Richard Gilroy, transplant hepatologist and Intermountain Health’s liver transplant medical director. “However, an inability to access a transplant for residents of the Mountain West existed as recently as five years ago as compared to the access in states like California or those in the Northeast.”

Gilroy said Intermountain Health’s institutional leaders and team understood this and together, with the organ donation community, have designed a system that now provides the residents of Idaho and Utah the highest liver transplant rates per capita in the nation. In addition, 92 liver transplants performed last year were from patients mostly coming from Idaho.

“Although geography elsewhere may remain a barrier to access to a lifesaving transplant, our vision and commitment will soon see geography eliminated as a barrier to a life saved throughout the Mountain West,” Gilroy said.

Over the past 40 years, the Intermountain Heart Transplant Program has grown into a national model and is recognized as a national center of excellence, said Dr. Rami Alharethi, medical director of the Intermountain Heart Transplant and Artificial Heart Program at Intermountain Medical Center.

“It is rewarding and exciting to be part of a heart program that is one of the best in the country, with high quality outcomes, including 100% patient survival rates at one-year post heart transplant,” Alharethi said.

Out of the total number of transplants done last year at Intermountain Health, 265 were kidney transplants, a 34% increase from the previous year and a 214% surge from five years ago. Livers were transplanted into 189 patients, up from 182 in 2023, and equating to 385% growth from 2018. Four people received both a kidney and pancreas and 29 patients received a new heart.

“I am always in awe of the wonderful support and kindness of the human spirit of how people step up to help others in need,” Morris said.