Beat Goes On

Doctors and administrators at Tampa General Hospital's organ transplant program say being big was never the goal, but a recent feat turns that premise upside down.

The accomplishment: The unit, with 500 transplants performed, moved up six spots on the list of highest volume transplant centers in the country in 2011, from 10th to fourth.

Only the UCLA Health System in Los Angeles, California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and New York-Presbyterian Hospital performed more transplants in 2011, according to Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data. There are 258 solid organ transplant centers in the country, and the TGH program is the largest in the Southeast.