Prisma Health to become the second hospital system in SC to offer kidney transplants | Cheers

Prisma Health announced on Thursday that it will become the second health care system to offer kidney transplants in South Carolina.

Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, is currently the only hospital in this state that offers the procedure. MUSC doctors also perform heart, lung and liver transplants.

According to a press release issued by Prisma Health, which operates hospitals in Greenville, Columbia, and elsewhere in the state, about 30 percent of South Carolina patients who needed a kidney transplant last year left the state for the procedure.

“The kidney transplant program is scheduled to begin in late 2021 and the team is making great progress in organizing services and recruiting specialized personnel to meet this schedule,” explained the hospital system in the press release.

But the new program will not necessarily reduce waiting times for patients who need a transplant. Nearly 100,000 people in the United States are on the list of organ transplants waiting for a kidney, but the supply of available organs always falls short of demand.

MUSC spokeswoman Heather Woolwine said in a prepared statement that the hospital is not familiar with the details of Prisma’s plan to offer kidney transplants, but said that MUSC hopes that Prisma has “taken into account national dynamics. allocation and based on what is in the best interest of patients awaiting kidney transplants in our state ”.

According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, more than 250 hospitals in the United States offer kidney transplants for adult patients. Much less transplant larger organs, such as the heart or lungs.