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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Medical University of South Carolina has over 1,400 patients on the organ transplant waitlist, but that number is now going down due to the hospital’s vaccine requirement.
The Medical University of South Carolina says 5 to 10 patients have already removed themselves from the organ transplant list due to the medical school’s vaccine requirement for transplantees.
MUSC says 23 more patients are likely to be removed from the transplant list this week.
MUSC implemented the vaccine requirement for transplantees back in November. Patients had until Dec. 1 to begin their vaccination process. Since then, 97% of the 1,438 patients on MUSC’s organ transplant list have met the vaccine requirements.
While dozens of patients are in varying stages of completing their requirement, 1.6% of the 1,438 have no plans to get the vaccine now or in the future, likely removing themselves or being removed from MUSC’s United Network for Organ Sharing waitlist entirely.
They medical school says they are making very few medical exemptions, while also referring some patients to transplant centers that don’t require the vaccine to be transplant-eligible.
MUSC released this statement on the new data Wednesday:
“MUSC Health’s transplant team wants to keep patients safe and achieve the best possible outcome from organ transplant. Patients awaiting or undergoing evaluation for organ transplant at MUSC Heath are now required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, with very few medical exceptions. We are communicating this requirement to all current/new/future patients who are involved in the transplant evaluation process.”
More information on MUSC’s vaccine requirement for transplant patients can be found here.
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