Abbott Northwestern halts kidney transplants following staffing shortages

Staffing challenges prompted Allina Health to halt kidney transplants at its flagship hospital, Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis, despite a growing need for the procedures in a society struggling with chronic diseases.

The health system suspended kidney transplants in late June, and will explain that decision in a public state hearing later this month. Allina also announced Monday it will be closing a substance abuse unit at its Mercy Hospital campus in Fridley, and will relocate at least some of those inpatient services.

Allina’s decision to end its kidney transplant program comes amid an increase in such transplants in Minnesota, including a record 612 across four transplant hospitals in 2023, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network database.

Abbott only hosted 40 of the transplants that year, though, compared to 290 at Mayo Clinic. The Rochester hospital has grown its program over the last decade to become Minnesota’s largest kidney transplant center.

In a statement Monday, Allina said its decision “was made after careful consideration of our ability to fully staff the program.”

State law requires hearings six months in advance of hospitals closing units so the public can have a say about the impact. Allina said it qualified for an exemption because it had been trying to hire a transplant coordinator to keep the program open and had been unable to do so.

When kidneys fail, they can no longer filter and clean blood pumped through the heart and circulatory system. To avoid life-threatening complications, patients in kidney failure need either regular dialysis treatments that mechanically filter blood, or organs transplanted from living or deceased donors.

LifeSource, the organ procurement organization for Minnesota, sought to expand the supply of kidneys and other organs for transplant in 2023 by sending deceased donors to the state’s two largest transplant hospitals: Mayo and the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

Research suggested it would be cheaper and more effective to procure organs at large transplant centers rather than at community hospitals less-equipped for the responsibility.

The switch did not impact Abbott’s access to organs for its transplant program, though, said Sarah Sonn, LifeSource’s communications director.

“Organs are still allocated the same way,” she said. It’s based on physiological matches between donors and recipients and which patients stand to benefit the most.

As a hospital that did only a limited number of transplants, Abbott has struggled in the past. Before it was revitalized a decade ago, Abbott’s heart transplant program nearly lost federal funding because it was providing too few procedures to keep its staff and skills sharp.