Renal Care

Kidney Care

When you need renal care, including kidney dialysis, Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center is your top choice. Our Dr. Ravinder N. Agarwal Renal Center is dedicated to providing the very best in kidney care. This freestanding dialysis center, located next to our medical center, provides kidney care to people across the North Country.

Dialysis Treatments for Kidney Disease

Our renal center has 24 dialysis stations available. We can easily accommodate your dialysis appointments, and we offer a number of innovative kidney dialysis options to meet your individual needs. These are a few of the options we offer:

• Hemodialysis
  • In this form of kidney dialysis, you will come to our renal center. We'll access your bloodstream with needles or through a catheter. We'll send the blood through a dialyzer or artificial kidney that will act as a filter to remove waste and extra fluid. You'll come to the renal center three times per week for three to five hours each visit.
• Home hemodialysis
  • In a traditional kidney dialysis program, you miss several days of treatment each and every week. If you perform home dialysis, you can perform your own therapy every day. That could keep wastes and fluids from building up inside your body. If you use this form of dialysis, you can set your own schedule and choose treatment times that work for you. We use an eight-week training program to teach you how to perform this procedure at home, and we'll make sure you feel confident about doing each task before you start doing home hemodialysis.
• Peritoneal dialysis
  • This form of kidney dialysis is also performed at home. We'll perform a surgery to place a catheter into the peritoneal cavity in your abdomen, and you will use fluid to push out waste products. Each home dialysis treatment will take about 30 minutes to complete. You'll come to the renal center regularly for checkups when you're undergoing peritoneal dialysis.

We'll explain your kidney dialysis options clearly and carefully, so you can make the right choice for your health and your lifestyle.

Support & Education During Kidney Dialysis

Our comprehensive renal center makes getting dialysis quick and easy. But we know that comprehensive treatment means more than just dialysis. You may also have questions and concerns about your diet, exercise levels, and other lifestyle issues.

The staff will work closely with you to tailor your treatment plan, address your concerns and help you understand how to care for yourself. We will boost your knowledge of renal care through our educational classes. Every three months, we provide patients with different education topics.

We also help to keep our community healthy through our work with the National Kidney Foundation. That partnership allows us to promote kidney screenings and fundraising events.

Our Kidney Care Team

Our board certified nephrologists are on-site and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In addition to our kidney doctors, we have an interdisciplinary team available to help you. Each team member plays an important role:

• Our experienced staff of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses are here to provide direct patient care with the support of dialysis technicians.
• An on-site dietitian can help with meal planning. Your dietitian can also help you understand how the foods you eat impact your health.
• An on-site social worker is available to help both you and your family as you adjust to the changes that dialysis brings. Help is available with issues related to social, financial and personal concerns.

Traveling to the area and need dialysis? Our center welcomes patients for short-term care. For more information, speak to our social worker.