Nephrology services launches at UWMC-Northwest

New nephrology services opened this week at UW Medical Center – Northwest, expanding outpatient clinic access and bringing all the Northwest campus’ kidney care under the supervision of UW Medicine physicians.

Seattle Nephrology provided inpatient kidney care at the hospital for decades and is praised for its years of dedicated partnership. Hospital leadership sees the transition to UW Medicine Nephrology as an important step in meeting the need for increasingly complex care.

“As Northwest’s inpatient population looks more and more like the Montlake population, the campus has an increasing need for the type of expertise offered by our UW Medicine nephrologists. This change will accelerate our ability to support increased patient complexity on the Northwest campus,” says Dr. Laura Quinnan-Hostein, professor of clinical practice (General Internal Medicine) and chief medical officer for UW Medical Center – Northwest. 

On the outpatient side, the expansion initially will add three half-days per week at a clinic in the McMurray Building on the main Northwest campus, with plans to eventually increase to six half-days per week. Three physicians will cover outpatient care, and others will provide consultative services.

Dr. Rajnish Mehrotra, professor and head of the Division of Nephrology, says bringing UW Medicine nephrology services to the Northwest campus opens possibilities unavailable elsewhere.

“Leading-edge innovation and science, clinical trials — that’s the opportunity that we at academic medical centers offer,” Mehrotra says.