Seth Southwick is the dialysis services director for Intermountain.
While COVID-19 is considered primarily a respiratory illness, the virus can also cause severe and lasting harm in other organs, including the heart and kidneys. Some people with severe cases of COVID-19 have experienced serious kidney damage, even people with no underlying kidney problems before contracting the virus. This has led to a dramatic increase in the need for dialysis and other kidney care services, and Intermountain’s Kidney Service team has risen to the occasion.
Early in the pandemic, Seth Southwick, dialysis services director, and his team saw areas with surging cases of COVID-19 were experiencing high need for advanced dialysis therapy. They were also seeing high rates of mortality for patients with kidney problems. There were dialysis staffing and equipment shortages all over. The Kidney Services team wanted to do all they could to give the best care for Intermountain’s COVID-19 patients.
“We started planning early to prepare and create system capacity for dialysis,” Seth says. “Our modeling suggested we’d have enough equipment, but we still tried to source some additional equipment. Staffing was another story.”
Seth says his team was already short-staffed before the pandemic, and it’s a difficult specialty to staff because dialysis requires specialized training that takes 8 to 12 weeks.
“We partnered with other system leaders to source staffing, recruit additional staffing, and add agency staffing,” he says. “Our efforts were successful, and we didn’t miss any treatments because of staffing shortages. All of our caregivers really, really, stepped up.”
People with kidney disease are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, especially patients on dialysis because of their weakened immune systems. To protect this vulnerable population, Intermountain was able to transition Kidney Clinic visits to telehealth so patients could see their nephrologist and received needed kidney care virtually. Kidney Services also partnered with many affiliated nephrologists to help them have access to see hospitalized patients virtually.
“All of this work was done very rapidly, building on the framework we’d already set,” Seth says. “Patients were all still seen for care and providers were kept safe.”
March is National Kidney Month, a good time to consider your own risk of kidney disease. One in three Americans is at risk. Kidney disease can be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and it’s more likely to occur in people who have a family history of kidney disease. If you feel you’re at risk, ask your primary care provider to check your glomerular filtration rate score and learn what you can do now to help your kidneys stay healthy.
“Individuals with kidney disease who are aware of the disease and able to obtain treatment early can experience a higher quality of life,” says Ray Morales, Intermountain’s assistant vice president of Kidney Services. “The Kidney Services team is focused on helping individuals with kidney disease live the healthiest lives possible by taking a proactive and comprehensive approach to managing this disease throughout the patient’s continuum of care.”
Take a minute to find out if you’re at risk for kidney disease at MinuteForYourKidneys.org and learn more about Intermountain Kidney Services at IntermountainHealthcare.org/kidney.