Our dialysis program includes both an acute in-center hemodialysis unit based at our University Main campus hospital (licensed for up to 12 outpatients) and an outpatient in-center and home dialysis program for our ESRD population.
Fellows spend 6 months over the course of 2 years where they participate in outpatient dialysis rounds.They will be exposed to in-center hemodialysis through our outpatient dialysis clinics (DCI, the largest non-profit dialysis organization and the Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System). They will also gain exposure to nocturnal in-center hemodialysis (one of the only nocturnal in-centers regionally) and participate in the multidisciplinary care of patients with our nursing staff, dieticians, and social workers.Our fellows additionally gain exposure to Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement and develop a working knowledge of key aspects of the medical director’s role in the dialysis unit.
Our home dialysis population comprises both peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis (short daily dialysis). We are actively growing our population (now ~ over 50 patients) and have developed an urgent-start PD program to facilitate growth and patient preference. We additionally offer an elective rotation in Phoenix with our community nephrologists’ clinics that follow > 100 PD patients. As many of us hold home therapies as the modality of choice for most of our patient population, we do place a strong emphasis on learning this modality during fellow training.
Fellows will also have an opportunity to rotate through our interventional nephrology access center where they will develop a thorough understanding of the physical exam of the vascular access, US of the vascular access, fistulography and revascularization techniques, as well as tunneled dialysis catheter placement and removal.