Advocate Christ Medical Center Kidney Transplant Program Granted Federal Approval for Participation in Medicare
Oak Lawn, Ill. -- The adult kidney transplant program at Advocate Christ Medical Center has been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), making the program eligible for Medicare reimbursement. The approval follows a CMS certification survey visit on February 1, 2012.
The federal surveyors examined all the components of the transplant program, including kidney transplant recipient and donor records, and conducted patient interviews. They did not find any deficiencies and approved the program with no citations.
“Achieving Medicare approval is a stringent process; CMS surveyors conduct an intensive assessment of program staff, policies and procedures, quality, performance and outcomes,” said Deepak Mital MD, surgical director of the kidney transplant program at Christ Medical Center.
Of particular significance has been the ability of the Christ Medical Center kidney transplant team to develop a successful program in just two short years since the program’s inception in December 2009. In addition to surgeons, the medical center’s transplant team includes physicians (transplant nephrologists), nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, financial coordinators, social workers, and dietitians.
Among the kidney transplant program’s strengths is its use of advanced, minimally invasive surgical techniques to remove a matched kidney from a living donor. “We offer laparoscopic surgery, micro-invasive donor nephrectomy and also robotic surgery to remove donor kidneys,” Dr. Mital said. “All of these approaches result in early hospital discharge for our donors and a quick return to work.
“Our program provides recipients the latest advances in transplantation, including steroid-free immunosuppression and other widely accepted new protocols,” Dr. Mital continued. “We also will be participating in the UNOS (United Network of Organ Sharing) Kidney Paired Donor Exchange Program, which will allow our patients access to a large, nationwide pool of living donors.
“Medicare certification also represents an exciting step forward for our Southland communities and the entire 11-hospital Advocate Health Care system,” Dr. Mital said. “We have an outpatient clinic at Lockport, and plan to offer similar pre and post-transplant services at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, as well as at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. Patients will no longer have to make long, difficult and frequent commutes from the suburbs to downtown Chicago medical centers for kidney transplantation. They now have a quality, nationally approved program in their neighborhood.”
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About Advocate Christ Medical Center and Hope Children’s Hospital Advocate Christ Medical Center and Hope Children’s Hospital is part of Advocate Health Care, which is one of the nation’s leading health care networks. A not-for-profit, 690-bed, premier teaching institution with nearly 1,000 affiliated physicians, Christ Medical Center is a leader in health care and one of the major referral hospitals in the Midwest in a number of specialties, including cardiovascular services, heart and kidney transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, orthopedics, pediatrics and women’s health. The hospital also has one of the busiest Level I trauma centers in Illinois providing emergency care for more than 85,000 patient visits annually and is a leader in breakthrough technologies, including eICU® (electronic intensive care unit) monitoring, robotic da Vinci Surgery System® and CyberKnife® Radiosurgery. The medical center is recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Magnet Medical Center. Magnet status represents the highest honor in the nursing profession. Located on the same campus is Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital, the largest freestanding pediatric medical facility in the south and southwest suburbs. The 69-bed children’s hospital, with some 150 pediatricians, houses a Level IIIc neonatal intensive care unit, the highest designation awarded in Illinois, and serves as a state-designated pediatric critical care center, providing the highest level of care for children. Hope Children’s Hospital also is internationally noted for pioneering advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric heart disease and has been designated as being among the nation’s top 50 children’s hospital in cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News and World Report. To obtain more information or to visit our medical center newsroom, log on to: www.advocatehealth.com/christ or www.advocatehealth.com/hope.
