Exceptional Medical and Interventional Kidney Care at Wheaton Franciscan – St. Joseph Campus

Kidneys keep your body “in balance” by helping you eliminate fluids and waste, make red blood cells and control bone health.
However, your kidneys may not be able to function properly due to genetic issues, or due to high blood pressure or diabetes mellitus.

If you find yourself in these situations, Wheaton Franciscan - St. Joseph Campus can help.

Our services
Wheaton Franciscan – St. Joseph Campus offers medical and interventional treatments on an inpatient basis for the various stages of kidney disease. 

• Chronic Kidney Disease treatments. We work with you to offer you ways to better protect your kidneys from failure. A program of lifestyle behavior change may include teaching you ways to control blood sugar or through diet, medications and watching your numbers with your doctor (health care provider). Medical options may also be recommended.

When kidneys fail, or reach end stage, you may need to make the decision to start dialysis. St. Joseph offers the following dialysis options on an inpatient basis. 

• Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy. This treatment occurs in the Intensive Care Unit on a short-term basis for patients who have unstable health. 
• Hemodialysis. Your blood supply is linked to a special machine that cleans your blood (much like your kidneys would do if they were still working). To connect the machine with your blood stream, you will undergo a “vascular access” procedure. A surgeon who specializes in creating dialysis access will make a fistula. While St. Joseph does not offer this on an outpatient basis, we do provides hemodialysis if you have an illness that requires you to be in the hospital. Your kidney specialist would alert us to that need. 
• Peritoneal dialysis (manual and cycled) This type of dialysis is administered through a catheter in your abdomen. Special fluids are placed into the catheter a few times each day or using a machine called the cycler at night. There may be times when a hospital stay is needed.

End stage kidney disease presents a variety of challenges for patients, and there are times when patients decide to stop or not even begin treatment. In these cases, we offer a caring group of health care providers who will help you and your family to fully understand your decision and make arrangements for care that meet your needs.

Our team
Our team approach features clinical care providers who have specialized training in working with kidney disease, including nephrologists (physicians who specialize in kidney function and disease). We collaborate with your primary care physician to ensure your care is comprehensive and managed efficiently

For more information 

• Please contact our director of nephrology at (414) 874-4534. 
• Find a nephrologist (a physician that specializes in kidneys) who treats patients at Wheaton Franciscan – St. Joseph Campus.