End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is a difficult illness to navigate for patients and their families, and that burden is often complicated by expensive and time-consuming travel for care. Mercy Hospital Ada’s new dialysis suite will help patients from Ada and surrounding counties access inpatient kidney services close to home so they can focus on what matters most.
The dialysis suite at Mercy Hospital Ada will be the only inpatient acute dialysis facility in the region. It will provide support for hospitalized patients with ESRD. This means individuals who suffer from chronic kidney failure and are hospitalized for additional illness or injury will no longer need to be transferred out of the area for dialysis. While there is another local kidney care facility in Ada, hospital patients cannot receive dialysis services there
“There is a large population of individuals with ESRD living in the surrounding area,” said Sharon Boling, director of nursing and critical care services at Mercy Hospital Ada. “With our new suite, we will now be able to manage these patients right here at the hospital. Our team includes nurses with specialty training in dialysis who can provide top-level care.”
ESRD is a condition where the kidneys gradually stop functioning. Kidneys filter the body’s waste, and when they fail, dangerous levels of fluids, electrolytes and waste accumulate in the body. Dialysis filters the blood through advanced medical technology. Patients cannot go without this life-saving treatment, but it is time-consuming.
Some patients need dialysis three times a week for up to four to five hours per visit – a total of 15 or more hours dedicated to managing their disease, not including additional commute time. Many patients do not feel stable enough to drive themselves to and from treatment and rely on family and friends to drive them.
Illness, even something as common as the flu, can be especially dangerous for someone with advanced kidney failure. Patients frequently require hospitalization and support, which often means going even farther from home for care.
“Family and friends often get burned out with the amount of travel it takes to support someone with ESRD in a rural area,” said Boling. “It can be especially difficult for dialysis patients to receive the help they need from loved ones when they have to be transferred out of the area.”
The new suite will have nursing coverage around the clock to support emergency needs and will house state-of-the-art Tablo machines, which provide the newest dialysis technology. It will provide both acute hemodialysis and Slow Low Efficient Dialysis (SLED) to patients.
“We are bringing essential services to the people,” said Terence Farrell, president of Mercy Hospital Ada. “This new dialysis suite is another illustration of how Mercy is listening to the needs of rural patients and actively working to ease their burden of care and treatment.”
The dialysis suite is only for hospitalized patients and is not for outpatient treatment. It is located on the second floor of Mercy Hospital Ada, Suite 201, next to the Endoscopy unit.
