Making a Referral

This page and the accompanying Referral Form are designed to expedite the referral process and initial evaluation of your patient for kidney, pancreas, or simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplantation.

We believe it is in the best interest of all patients to provide them with an early evaluation, education, and discussion of their near and long-term options regarding transplantation.  Any patient with renal failure may be referred for transplant evaluation; he or she does not have to be on dialysis to qualify for kidney transplant.  Similarly, we will evaluate your type 1 diabetic patients who may benefit from a pancreas transplant. 

You may refer a patient even if he or she is not a candidate for transplant at this time. For example, the patient may be currently medically ineligible (e.g., BMI outside of acceptable range), but with time, his or her situation may change. In such a case, the patient may be listed in an inactive status until the issue has resolved, although s/he would not be eligible for an offer of an organ until placed on active status.

If you have any questions regarding a patient’s suitability for transplant, please contact us at 551.996.2608.

 

The Evaluation Process

When you make a referral, we will contact your patient and give him or her an appointment for an initial evaluation. You will receive a copy of the initial evaluation notes and we will keep you apprised of your patient’s status throughout the process.

This evaluation includes:

  1. An educational session regarding the transplantation process, procedure, and recovery
  2. Interview with a transplant nurse coordinator  (will include discussion of Living Donor potential)
  3. Interview with a transplant social worker
  4.  Interview with a transplant financial coordinator
  5. Medical evaluation by a transplant surgeon and nephrologist
  6. Blood tests to identify a patient's blood type and antigens

Patients often require additional medical and psychological testing including cardiac evaluation (stress test, cardiac catheterization), cancer screening, psychiatric evaluation or pulmonary testing.  We will refer the patient for these tests and send copies of the results to you as well.  If you already have any test results that may be of help in our evaluation of the patient, please send them to us via fax: 551.996.0826.

 
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