Renal Center reaches milestone in delivery of high-volume patient care

January 27, 2015

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This month, Texas Children’s Renal Center delivered more than 100 acute therapies in less than 10 days – a remarkable milestone that demonstrates the value of teamwork and our hospital’s commitment to putting patients’ needs first.

“This is an incredible accomplishment,” said Texas Children’s Chief of Renal Services Dr. Michael Braun. “As the demand for our services continues to grow, so has our collaborative spirit to ensure critically-ill patients receive efficient, high quality care every time they walk through our doors.”

During the past three years, our Renal Center – ranked No. 1 in Texas and No. 4 nationally by U.S. News and World Report – has seen a 20 percent annual increase in the volume of acute therapies delivered to patients during their hospital stay.

Unlike chronic kidney disease – which is incurable and tends to worsen over time prompting the need for dialysis or kidney transplant – acute kidney disease develops suddenly due to injury or underlying health problems. In many cases, the kidneys regain full function once the cause is addressed.

The Renal Center at Texas Children’s delivers two types of acute therapies – dialysis for the treatment of kidney failure, and apheresis, which separates unwanted cells or components from a patient’s blood and returns the desired components to patients with a wide range of illnesses.

Last year, 2,400 acute therapies were delivered to patients, averaging six treatments per day. To achieve this month’s milestone – 124 acute therapies in less than 10 days – the renal staff collaborated with numerous multidisciplinary teams across the organization to deliver results.

“Our success is contingent upon the support we received from fellows, nurses, blood bank, transplant services, supply chain, the intensive care units, as well as the critical care physicians, surgeons and radiologists who placed dialysis catheters into our patients prior to treatment,” Braun said.

The Renal Center’s exceptionally dedicated dialysis team worked tirelessly to ensure our acute and chronic kidney disease patients received life-saving treatments.

“Nurses and clinical hemodialysis technicians voluntarily worked extra hours and shifts to meet the increasing demand for renal services,” said Valesca Adams, assistant director of Nursing for Texas Children’s Renal Center. “It was a lot of work, but at the end of the day, our primary focus was – and still is – fulfilling our patients’ needs.”

“I am proud and humbled that our teams pulled together to achieve a performance record of this kind,” Braun said. “It is great to celebrate this milestone but even more importantly that we meet the standard of excellence that our patients have come to expect.”

Besides treating kidney disease, the Renal Center provides services to transplant patients, critically-ill ICU patients, as well as patients who have undergone cardiovascular surgery. The renal team delivers extracorporeal therapy to liver patients to help reduce the disease burden as they await a transplant.

To learn more about Texas Children’s Renal Center, click here.