Enhancing Inpatient Dialysis Services with Specially-trained Staff

Garnet Health Medical Center, formerly Orange Regional Medical Center, is pleased to announce that it has enhanced inpatient dialysis services with its own specially-trained staff. 

“Enhancing our dialysis program for hospitalized patients is an important step,” said Nurse Director of Hemodialysis Christina Caravello. “Dedicated and specialized staff allows us to enhance quality of care for our inpatients.” 

Dialysis is a treatment that does the work of healthy kidneys when the kidneys have stopped functioning properly, and is typically recommended for people with advanced kidney disease.

Garnet Health Medical Center offers inpatient dialysis in a dedicated 5-bed treatment area located on its third floor. Treatment is also provided directly at the patient’s bedside in the critical care environment when appropriate.

Certified dialysis technicians and qualified dialysis registered nurses provide dialysis treatments to hospitalized patients from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. A dialysis registered nurse is always on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day for dialysis treatment outside of normal operating hours.

Prior to this transition, Garnet Health Medical Center maintained a contract with a third party kidney care provider. 

What you should know about dialysis treatment 

Dialysis keeps the body in balance when the kidneys no longer can. The main functions of dialysis are to:

• Remove excess waste, salt and water from the body to prevent unhealthy buildup
• Keep certain chemicals such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate at safe levels in the blood
• Help control blood pressure
• Life expectancy on dialysis can vary depending on other medical conditions. Many patients live well on dialysis for 20 or 30 years.
• Many patients live normal lives while on dialysis and often feel better after treatment because dialysis helps reduce issues caused by kidney failure.

For more information about dialysis services in the intensive care unit at Garnet Health Medical Center, visit garnethealth.org/intensivecare