Swedish opens a new and expanded Organ Transplant and Liver Center
This month, Swedish opens the doors on a new, expanded Organ Transplant and Liver Center on First Hill. This is the first Organ Transplant and Liver facility in the nation to provide all related services but surgery in one location and on one floor.
“When patients undergo this type of treatment and care, it often requires ongoing appointments with a variety of doctors who make up the patient’s care team,” said Dr. Marquis Hart, Swedish Transplant Surgeon and Medical Director of the Organ Transplant and Liver Center. “We want to do whatever we can to make it easier for our patients while they are under our care. This uniquely centralized approach allows them to go to one place for all of their appointments and treatments. The only thing we cannot do at the Center is surgery but those happen next door at our First Hill hospital.”
The expanded Organ Transplant and Liver Center includes state of the art exam rooms, an organ research lab and on-site phlebotomy lab. Virtual collaboration with physicians all over the region is also possible through telemedicine capabilities in the Center’s main conference room. The move to a new, expanded facility was made possible by donor support through the Swedish Foundation.
Swedish is one of four adult kidney transplant centers, and one of only two adult liver transplant centers serving the entire WAMI (Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) area. The Swedish Benevolent Donor Program (BCD) was also the first of its kind on the West Coast. The Swedish BCD provides altruistic individuals the ability to volunteer anonymously to give a kidney to a patient who is on the Swedish waiting list.
Swedish was the first to offer outpatient kidney dialysis in the United States and built its new center at the same spot where these procedures first took place 1960.
Swedish will be hosting a media-only open house on Thursday, July 30 at 3:00pm. An open house for the public runs later that evening from 5:00pm – 7:00pm.
For more information on the Swedish Organ Transplant and Liver Center, please visit: http://www.swedish.org/services/transplant-program.