The Queen’s Medical Center has won approval to expand the state’s only organ transplant program to include pancreas replacements.
The United Network for Organ Sharing, a private nonprofit that manages transplants for the federal government, recently approved Queen’s application to perform pancreas transplants. The hospital was notified in January that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had granted approval. CMS must certify organ replacements for the government insurance programs to cover the transplants.
“Pancreas transplantation can halt and, in some cases, even reverse some of the end organ dysfunction caused by diabetes,” said Dr. Jon “Kai” Yamaguchi, the primary surgeon for the pancreas program at the Queen’s Transplant Center. “Having a pancreas transplant program in Hawaii markedly improves the access for our patients as geographic proximity to a transplant center has been shown to be a significant factor in whether or not patients are able to be successfully transplanted.”
The Queen’s Transplant Center was established in January 2012 after the abrupt closure of Hawaii Medical Center and its transplant facility.
The first liver transplant at Queen’s was done in March 2012, and the first kidney and living kidney donor replacements in July 2012. The center has performed more than 230 transplants since its inception.
“Pancreas transplantation at Queen’s provides an opportunity for Hawaii’s residents to have access to a procedure that enhances and prolongs their lives,” said Dr. Whitney Limm, Queen’s executive vice president of clinical integration.
The former Transplant Institute of the Pacific was shuttered when Hawaii Medical Center’s Liliha campus went out of business in December 2011, canceling scheduled surgeries and forcing numerous transplant hopefuls to fly to the mainland for organ and bone marrow transplants. Roughly 50 organ transplants were done annually in the years before the center’s closing. At its peak in 2005, the facility performed nearly 100 organ replacements a year.
Queen’s initially expects to perform two to three pancreas transplants per year and is considering heart transplants, a service lost when HMC closed. Nearly all replacements of the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, a hormone that regulates the absorption of sugar into cells, are done to treat type 1 diabetes, typically in conjunction with a kidney transplant.
The state provided $1.5 million in seed money to help Queen’s quickly launch the organ transplant facility to replace the Pacific Basin’s only transplant hub. The hospital matched the state funds for the estimated $3 million in startup costs, which included hiring staff and building renovations. Still, Queen’s projects the facility will sustain $7 million in losses in its first five years of operation. The transplant center posted a $700,000 loss in fiscal year 2015.
