Bethany Pellegrino, MD, FACP, FASN and Division of Nephrology Recognized for Teaming Up With Potomac Valley Hospital to Perform First Tele-Dialysis Treatment

Staff at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital and Potomac Valley Hospital (PVH) recently teamed up to perform the facilities’ first tele-dialysis treatment for a patient at PVH. It was the exciting next step in a journey that started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We all remember how scarce available beds were during peak stages of the pandemic, which was especially concerning for end-stage kidney disease patients who were on dialysis and needed to be hospitalized at a facility that offered the service. For many patients in the north-central part of West Virginia and the surrounding region, that meant a trip to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown or United Hospital Center in Bridgeport.

But with the support of Mark Boucot, president and CEO of Potomac Valley Hospital and Garrett Regional Medical Center, leaders in the Nephrology Department at Ruby Memorial Hospital took portable dialysis machines to PVH. Then, by utilizing the telemedicine intensive care unit system that was already operating in that facility, ICU nurses were trained to administer patients’ dialysis with virtual support from a nephrologist at Ruby Memorial.

When a patient from Oakland, Maryland, recently presented at Garrett Regional Medical Center with influenza and dehydration after missing dialysis for a week, rather than transferring that patient to Morgantown or Bridgeport – both more than an hour away – the patient was transferred to PVH, about 40 minutes away and closer to the patient’s home, and the treatment was completed the following morning.

Beth Pellegrino, MD, FACP, FASN, division chief of the Nephrology Department at Ruby Memorial Hospital, said she and other staff in the department had been dreaming of being able to offer dialysis at other hospitals in the WVU Health System for a long time, and to finally see a patient actually on a dialysis machine at PVH was “awesome.”

“Being able to provide this level of care for our patients where they live is so gratifying,” Dr. Pellegrino said, adding that as the Health System’s facilities and providers continue to work together, “we are only going to get better at caring for the patients of West Virginia and the surrounding region.”

Dr. Pellegrino also commended the coordination between staff members at both hospitals, including Mark Boucot; Kendra Thayer, MSN, FACHE, vice president of Clinical Services and chief nursing officer at PVH; John Gotses, RN, BSN, Ruby Memorial Hospital’s Nursing Dialysis manager; April George, RN, ambulatory nurse in Ruby’s Nephrology Department; and the ICU nurses and medical staff at PVH.

“Without their willingness to try this, we would have never been able to be successful,” she said.

“The team at PVH is very proud to be at the forefront of the tele-dialysis effort within the WVU Health System,” Mark said. “Providing these treatments at PVH means the patients and their families no longer have to travel for care. Being able to receive the dialysis treatments you need while you’re in the hospital is a significant development for the people in the PVH service area who struggle with renal disease.”