The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a 10-year compact sought by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department with an organ procurement company for the pre-authorized recovery of anatomical parts from decedents received by the coroner’s office.
In a 5-0 vote without comment Tuesday, the board signed off on the coroner’s office request to continue a standing agreement with Azusa-based OneLegacy until June 30, 2036.
The coroner’s office, which is under the sheriff’s umbrella, has had contracts with the nonprofit going back to 2008.
The new contract, with an estimated annual cost of $35,000 — or $350,000 for the entire period — requires the county to bear all expenses associated with surgical organ and tissue removals and storage initially. However, OneLegacy ultimately will be responsible for reimbursing the coroner’s office for the process of acquiring the potential life-saving elements.
OneLegacy CEO Prasad Garimella said in March that the firm is the only federally designated organ procurement organization, or OPO, across seven Southern California counties — Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura.
Garimella said service agreements are in place with more than 200 hospitals, nine transplant centers and seven coroner’s offices.
The renewal agreement with Riverside County contains stipulations regarding how tissue and organs are to be obtained through the coroner’s office and maintained afterward until designated for recipients.
Organ donation registration is available through the California Department of Motor Vehicles and multiple nonprofit registries statewide. A decedent must have signed a donor card at some point in his or her lifetime in order for transfer of vital internal organs, eyes and other parts to be passed on at the time of a person’s death from an accident, suicide or other act.
OneLegacy is accredited and licensed by multiple entities, including the American Association of Tissue Banks, Eye Bank Association of America, Association of Organ Procurement Organizations and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, according to documents posted to the board’s agenda.