ANMC now offering in-house hemodialysis for adult inpatients
August 10, 2018
The Alaska Native Medical Center is constantly adding services and improving access to care for our people. ANMC now offers in-house hemodialysis to adult inpatients, a service previously only available to our adult patients in the Critical Care Unit (CCU).
Hemodialysis for adult inpatients not admitted to the CCU is done in the Flex Unit. Patients come down for their treatments and then go back to their admitted rooms on floors four or five of the hospital. Previously, if an adult inpatient who was not admitted to the CCU, but required hemodialysis, they would have to be transported outside the ANMC hospital for this lifesaving service.
In early 2016, ANMC opened a Flex Unit on the east side of the hospital’s second floor, adjacent to the Critical Care Unit. This inpatient space accommodates clinical support space and can be reconfigured depending on our hospital census and needs for the area. The unit provides eight additional beds — the unit can flex to five CCU beds or eight medical/surgical beds. Hemodialysis is done in a large bay area in the Flex Unit.
“Having this service allows our patients to receive the care they need,” said Jacqueline Quantrille, ANMC CCU Clinical Nurse Manager and Dialysis Program Manager. “It is a great feeling to provide continuum of care and keep our patients from having to be transferred to an outside facility.”
The Flex Unit is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A hemodialysis nurse is staffed in the unit 12 hours daily and nurses are also on call for nights and weekends.
“We love that our patients can stay in house to receive their treatment and care,” said Tammy Weaver, Principal Director of Medical & Multi-Specialty Clinics. “Our dialysis team was carefully put together with providers and nurses that provide high-quality care.”