The Vanderbilt Transplant Center has partnered with Deaconess Health System to open a new clinic in Newburgh, Indiana — Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s first in the Hoosier State.
The Vanderbilt Transplant Clinic, located at Deaconess’ Gateway Campus at 4011 Gateway Blvd., will see prospective heart, liver and kidney transplant recipients, as well as advanced heart failure patients. The clinic allows patients to receive Vanderbilt care much closer to home.
Though no transplants will occur there, VUMC providers will visit once or twice a month to see potential candidates in preparation for a transplant at VUMC’s main campus in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition, patients will be able to undergo most of their pre-transplant testing through Deaconess. Such testing would otherwise require a trip to Nashville.
The new clinic expands Vanderbilt’s outreach efforts and will open new opportunities for transplant for Deaconess Health System’s patients. Deaconess is the premier provider of health care services to 51 counties and includes 18 wholly owned, joint ventured, sponsored or affiliated hospitals located in southwestern Indiana, southeastern Illinois, and northwestern Kentucky.
“We are really excited to partner with the Deaconess Health System to provide collaborative care to patients who live in the tri-state area,” said Heidi Schaefer, MD, medical director of the clinic and professor of Medicine and medical director of Adult Solid Organ Transplant at VUMC. “Through this partnership, we will see patients with end-stage organ failure — including heart, liver and kidney — and identify those who would benefit from transplantation.”
Every month, Schaefer will see patients with kidney failure. Roman Perri, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, and Shakirat Salvador, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, will see patients with liver failure. Mark Wigger, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, and Donna Harmon, APRN, will see heart failure patients twice each month.
“Our hope is to allow for a convenient access point into the Vanderbilt system for those patients that live several hundred miles away,” Schaefer said. “In addition to providing in-person patient care, these clinics will allow our team to develop enhanced relationships with referring physicians in the area.”