Via Christi Health is suspending its kidney transplant program after four patients who had transplants died in April.
“While our Kidney Transplant program has the largest waiting list and our post-transplant and graft survival rates for the most recent reporting period are some of the best in its 30-year history, we experienced four deaths and one graft failure within a three-week period among patients who had been transplanted within the past 12 months,” said Dr. Steve Nesbit, chief medical officer for Via Christi Health’s Wichita hospitals.
“Our internal reviews have not pointed to a common cause among these patients, whose length of time from transplant and causes of death are varied,” Nesbit said. “However, our commitment to quality and safety demands that we take a time out while we complete a thorough review with external experts of all aspects of what is a highly complex program caring for critically ill patients.
