New Dell Seton Adult Abdominal Transplant Center Expands to Improve Patient Experience

In Fall 2024, the Adult Abdominal Transplant Center moved to a new clinic space within Dell Seton Medical Center.

The new clinic space is located on the first floor of the hospital, which allows for easier access for patients in need of a kidney, pancreas, or simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant. It also provides care to individuals in the living kidney donor program. Embedding the clinic within the hospital not only allows for a seamless patient experience between inpatient and outpatient care for transplant patients, but also for living donors as they progress through the transplant/living donor evaluation, surgery, and post-surgical care.

The new Abdominal Transplant Center includes:

• A dedicated lobby with a check-in area and check-out bays;
• 14 patient exam rooms, 1 consult room, 2 treatment rooms; and
• An in-house transplant infusion center with 7 bays.

Other enhanced features include a phlebotomy room with drawing stations, staff break room, new shared conference room, and a centralized provider charting space.

Housing all of the care a transplant patient and living donor need under one roof improves the patient experience and helps ensure every patient and family has access to well-coordinated and compassionate care.

With the expansion of the Abdominal Transplant Center, the team has grown too. Additional team members include two patient assistance representatives, one financial analyst, three transplant coordinators, and one transplant social worker.

Since the Abdominal Transplant Center at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas opened its doors in Nov 2021, the team has completed 65 kidney transplant recipient surgeries to date, with 44 living donor transplants. The team has a strategic plan to grow to 75 transplants a year within five years, and to 150 within 10 years. Currently, the Center has 154 patients on the kidney transplant waiting list and 1 on the kidney-pancreas transplant waiting list. It also has received 1,960+ recipient referrals, and 395 living donor referrals to date. 

In 2023, the Abdominal Transplant Center received its Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) certification, a process that allows DSMC to participate in and receive payment from Medicare or Medicaid programs. Receiving the CMS certification enables the Abdominal Transplant Center to serve more patients. This is especially significant as Texas has over 8,600 kidney patients on the transplant waitlist, with 48% of DSMC-UT waitlist patients under the age of 50 years. DSMC-UT patients can wait 5-6 years for a deceased donor transplant in Central Texas. If a patient has a living kidney donor, they can receive a life-saving organ within a matter of months. 

To learn more about supporting the Abdominal Transplant Center, please reach out to Victoria Threadgould (Living Kidney Donor) at [email protected]. You can also make a donation on our website. Simply select Dell Seton Transplant Program from the drop-down menu.

Published: December 17th, 2024