Piedmont Healthcare collected another trophy for its shelf this month, but it wasn't for excellence in healthcare.
The Georgia system beat out area television stations to earn its second regional Emmy in as many years for a segment highlighting a kidney swap between two families.
In another category, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta won an Emmy for a segment it produced in collaboration with news channel WXIA. The Southeast Emmy Awards were held this month in Piedmont's hometown of Atlanta.
Piedmont's video featured the story of Briana Mathis, 21, who was eager to donate a kidney to her mother, Tangie Price, an end-stage renal disease patient. But she wasn't a close enough match.
However, by agreeing to be a donor for a stranger, Briana and her mother became part of a pool of people in a similar situation, those with willing donors but incompatible matches, and therefore reduced their wait time for a kidney.
They were paired with a sister and brother: Tracey Kane, who needed a kidney, and Tom Oliver, who wanted to donate one to her but couldn't. The situation was unusual because it was a cross-match, and because the transplants were performed in the same facility.
“When you work in a hospital, there are patient stories all over the place,” said Rashel Stephenson, Piedmont's multimedia content manager. “Transplant in particular is a pretty dramatic service line. It's pretty heroic.”
Piedmont is unique in having its own internal video team, which produced the segment. The awards criteria allow videos to be distributed through a number of channels across television and broadband. Piedmont's video was available through its e-newsletter, Living Better.
