University Times

A transitional outpatient program for kidney transplant recipients at Presbyterian University Hospital has reduced hospital lengths of stay while garnering positive response from patients, according to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center officials.

Clinical services that customarily had been provided on an inpatient basis are provided in the Kidney Transplant Outpatient Unit for patients who now only need to spend portions of their day at the hospital. Since the program opened in November 1993, more than 130 patients have participated. Average lengths of stay have been reduced by 21 percent, from 19 days to 15 days.

The concept is being tried with liver transplant patients, and plans are underway to include lung transplant recipients as well.