Fremont County, Wyo. (March 2, 2022) – SageWest Health Care has launched inpatient hemodialysis services and added telenephrology as part of a new partnership with Specialist TeleMed (STeM), a leading multi-specialty telemedicine provider for hospitals, clinics, and remote locations worldwide. Together, these new services will increase access to higher levels of specialty care at SageWest, keeping patients close to home for their healthcare needs.
“Launching these important services is advancing renal care for our patients,” said Laurie Marcum, Chief Nursing Officer of SageWest Health Care. “We are now able to provide dialysis treatment onsite for patients who may need it while they are hospitalized, and our telenephrology program makes it easier for patients to have consultations and evaluations with specially trained providers by leveraging technology.”
Dialysis is a treatment that does the work of healthy kidneys when the kidneys have stopped functioning properly, and it is typically recommended for people with advanced kidney disease. Dialysis becomes necessary when the kidneys no longer remove enough waste and fluid from the blood to keep the body healthy – usually when a patient only has 10 to 15 percent of kidney function remaining. Hemodialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that uses a machine to filter the blood outside of the body. In hemodialysis, blood is pumped out of the body to an artificial kidney machine and returned to the body by tubes that connect the body to the machine.
“There is a growing demand for dialysis, in particular, so the more options we can offer patients, the better – especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Hasan Riaz, nephrologist of STeM and nephrology medical director of SageWest Health Care. “The pandemic has led to an influx of patients experiencing kidney failure. The new inpatient dialysis treatments now available at SageWest connect patients, especially those who are critically ill, to highly specialized medical services right here in our facility.”
Hemodialysis services and telenephrology are available for hospitalized patients.
About Specialist TeleMed (STeM)
Specialist TeleMed’s vision is to provide access to the highest-quality, value-based healthcare for patients within their communities. Visit specialisttelemed.com