CRANFORD, NJ — Trinitas Regional Medical Center has expanded its renal services program to the township, with the company unveiling its new dialysis center at Cranford Rehab & Nursing Center on May 16. Located at 205 Birchwood Ave., it is Trinitas’ fourth dialysis center within its network of hospitals and medical centers.
The new dialysis center will feature nine private stations that are situated with beds, televisions and Wi-Fi, a level of comfort not seen at other dialysis centers, according to Trinitas Vice President of Special Operations Joseph McTernan.
Many other facilities only provide chairs for their patients, he said.
“The beds are for patients to lay down in so they’re very comfortable during treatment,” McTernan said in a May 29 phone interview with LocalSource. “We think that dialysis takes a very long time so we want to make sure that our patients are in a more relaxed state, so Trinitas really focused on patient comfort when building this center.”
Dialysis keeps the body in balance by removing waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from collecting in the body, keeping a safe level of certain chemicals in the blood, such as potassium and sodium. Kidney patients receiving dialysis treatments may be at the center for up to three and a half hours a day, three days per week, he said.
Trinitas partnered with the rehab center’s parent company, Excelerate HCS, to bring the dialysis center to Cranford.
McTernan said many patients at the rehab center already receive dialysis treatment, so several patients new center will be from that facility.
“We looked at where our patients were going and we looked at where there was a need for our services,” he said as to why Trinitas chose to establish the service in the rehab center.
Trinitas Regional Medical Center has opened a new dialysis center at the Cranford Rehab & Nursing Center with nine beds and an emphasis on comfort, including televisions and Wi-Fi.
“It made sense to expand into the Cranford area since our other centers are more to the east of the county.”
The medical center’s other three dialysis centers are located on Northwood Avenue in Linden, its main hospital on Williamson Street in Elizabeth and on Livingston Avenue in Elizabeth. All of those centers are currently full, according to McTernan.
Trinitas performs 35,000 outpatient treatments a year, and the new dialysis center will be able to see up to 27 patients per day.
“We are happy to introduce our new dialysis center to the community and healthcare professionals,” Gary Horan President and CEO of Trinitas Regional Medical Center said in a recent release from Trinitas.
“This is the culmination of many years of hard work, and to see it finally come to fruition is very satisfying.”
Trinitas’ renal services program has been around for more than 40 years and is one of the first programs of its kind in the state, according to McTernan. He also said Trinitas treats one patient who has been receiving dialysis for more than 40 years, making them one of the longest dialysis patients in the state.
McTernan highlighted Trinitas’ THRIVE program, which stands for “The High Risk-Intervention Via Education,” saying that it’s one of the leading chronic disease systems in the state.
The goal of THRIVE is to slow the progression of kidney disease, educate patients on treatment options and to help patients adjust to dialysis, according to Trinitas’ website.