One of New Jersey’s Busiest Inpatient Dialysis Unit at Hackensack University Medical Center

Service provides CRRT and SLED dialysis service for critically ill patients

New Jersey’s No. 1 ranked nephrology department, per U.S. News & World Report, is home to one of the state’s busiest inpatient dialysis units, performing approximately 7,600 dialysis sessions per year.

The inpatient dialysis unit at Hackensack University Medical Center offers many different dialytic forms of therapy to treat patients with acute kidney injury including Intermittent Hemodialysis (IHD), Prolonged Intermittent Renal Replacement Therapy (PIRRT), Sustained Low-Efficiency Dialysis (SLED), Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) and Peritoneal Dialysis (PD). These various dialysis treatment options seamlessly serve multiple patient care needs such as those who are critically ill patients as well as support other programs at Hackensack University Medical Center, including John Theurer Cancer Center and Heart & Vascular Hospital.

Monthly, the team performs an average of more than 600 acute dialysis treatments, in addition to an average of 50 therapeutic apheresis treatments.

The dialysis unit has more experience with performing SLED cases than most facilities in the region. Many smaller area hospitals are not able to provide this level of specialized service and depend on Hackensack University Medical Center to meet this niche need.

The team recently adopted a comprehensive hemodialysis charting system that is integrated within the patient’s EMR. This enhancement allows providers to see a snapshot of the patient’s treatment at any time within all locations in the hospital during their inpatient admission.

With large volumes of kidney care comes a depth of experience handling the complex, multi-disciplinary needs of our patients. The dialysis nursing team, Magnet-designated since 1995, comprises more than 20 full-time staff and provides some of the highest quality renal care in New Jersey. Many of the team’s nurses have served on national committees and advisory boards and have influenced care for renal patients nationally by sharing their expertise within the field.