UH opens satellite kidney transplant center in Westlake

University Hospitals has established a satellite Transplant Institute Education and Evaluation Center in Westlake, bringing the health system’s renowned transplant services to the Westside of Cuyahoga County and surrounding communities.

The satellite location, which opened July 23 at the UH Westlake Health Center on Clague Road, will provide kidney transplant education and evaluation services to patients with kidney failure who are potential candidates for the procedure. This new location fills a need in the community for these services closer to home.

“Our transplant team has recognized that local access to a transplant program is vital to a patient’s decision about transplant as a treatment option for organ failure,” said James Schulak, MD, director of the UH Transplant Institute. “For example, in Northeast Ohio a patient on the kidney transplant waiting list will wait (on average) three to five years to receive a deceased donor kidney for transplantation. Every day that a patient waits to pursue this treatment option matters.”

A multi-disciplinary team of transplant specialists from University Hospitals Case Medical Center, UH’s academic medical center, will provide services at this satellite, which include: education of organ failure and the transplantation process, determination of transplant candidacy, partnership with local providers to improve timely referral and support programming to enhance patient and care provider support.

The actual transplant and initial follow-up care will be performed at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, UH Case Medical Center has had a renowned transplant program for nearly 45 years and has performed more than 3,500 transplants.

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Volume 5, Issue 15, Posted 9:42 AM, 07.23.2013