- [Narrator] As you are considering
a pediatric kidney transplant program
for your child's care,
you'll need to ensure you're going to receive the best care
with an integrated support system.
It is important to ask,
does the program support all areas of care,
for both child and family?
- They should look for a program that can provide the kind
of comprehensive care that we can provide.
We're one of the bigger programs in the country.
The Kidney Center encompasses
all of our physicians and providers.
There is a total of nine of us now.
We have specialists in each
of the very small sections.
Clinic nurses who are specialized
in pediatric nephrology, dieticians,
the social workers, the psychologists, the surgeon,
we take care of the whole child.
Just because you have one kidney problem
that's not just your kidney problem.
So, we take care of the entire child
and oftentimes with it,
we partner with the family
and help take care of the family
who's helping take care of the child.
- [Narrator] The surgeons that perform transplants here
are all board certified transplant surgeons,
fully dedicated to abdominal solid organ transplantation
and they have more experience
than any other program in the region.
They collaborate closely with the entire team
in pre-transplant care, in the operating room,
and after kidney transplantation
to ensure we provide the best
surgical care for each patient.
The comprehensive care doesn't stop there,
we have transplant coordinators
who provide individualized education and resources
to the entire family before,
during, and after transplantation.
These are specialized senior pediatric nurses
with focused training in evaluation,
treatment and longitudinal care
of solid organ transplant recipients.
Our coordinators also have advanced qualifications
as certified clinical transplant coordinators.
- The coordinator role,
is important because we see them
through all aspects of care
whether they're inpatient or outpatient.
We are the point person when they're struggling
with mental health
and then we're able to connect them with our psychologists.
If the family struggling
with resources,
food insecurities,
housing issues,
we can point them to our social work team.
Whether by pager,
whether by desk phone,
we are available 24 hours a day.
- [Narrator] We also have a dedicated
transplant psychology team.
Our team meets our patients pre-transplant
and continues to provide care
for years after kidney transplant.
Our psychologists focus on developing plans
for coping with the emotional stresses
related to transplant,
work with kids and families to develop strategies
to take medications regularly
and commit to building long, supportive
relationships with our patients.
We're one of only a very few children's hospitals
that have a fellowship for transplant psychology.
Involving our trainees in psychosocial
care for kidney transplant recipients
allows us to provide personalized care
in a busy program.
- Having people who have the intimate knowledge
of sort of like what the nitty gritty
of our care is, as part of our sort of support staff,
is what helps us as
providers and physicians
do all the things that we do every day.
That's what you need,
a place that has the sort of bandwidth
to offer the kind of transplant you need,
but where all the sub-specialists
are working closely together.
- Everybody would routinely come up and check in with us
without scheduled appointments to make sure
that we were on the right path,
both medically, but also mentally.
There was such a well-rounded
amount of support from every single staff member
at the Kidney Center and at Children's.
The entire hospital is built that way.