In 2024-2025, Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange Multi-Organ Transplant Center was ranked #1 in the state for fastest transplant and post-surgery survival rates.
Multi-Organ Transplant Center
Our Approach
At Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange Multi-Organ Transplant Center, our top-rated team provides the most personalized treatment for you. We guide patients through every step of the transplant journey, from evaluation to surgery and post-transplant follow-up. Our expertise and compassionate care help patients successfully navigate the kidney or pancreas transplant process and ensure a smooth recovery.
We're dedicated to serving our community, so that each patient who enters our doors is examined individually and holistically. Also, you don’t need to be referred by a physician or dialysis clinic to make an appointment – we accept self-referrals.
We have a history of tackling surgical and medical challenges, like patients who have been turned down by other centers or those who are ABO-blood-type incompatible with their donors. And our transplant success and patient survival rates are among the highest in the nation, a true testament to the expertise of our skilled surgeons and staff.
For more details, find helpful answers to common questions about the transplant process in our FAQ section below.
Information for Potential Transplant Patients
Candidates for kidney transplantation must meet one or both of the following criteria:
- You’re suffering from chronic kidney disease.
- You might be approaching a dependence on renal replacement therapy, more commonly known as dialysis.
It’s important to evaluate your overall health and individual risk factors to help ensure transplant success.
A kidney, pancreas or kidney/pancreas transplant isn’t typically recommended for patients with the following conditions:
- Active cancer, ongoing serious infection or active gastric ulcer disease
- Severe, non-correctable heart or peripheral vascular disease
- Current drug or alcohol abuse
- Psychosocial conditions or situations that interfere with post-transplant care or medication management
There are several tests and procedures that we’ll need to complete your evaluation.
These tests and procedures could include:
- Abdominal ultrasound and a CT scan of your pelvis
- Blood and urine tests to determine if you have any infections and, eventually, what donor kidneys are compatible
- Chemical stress test
- Chest x-ray and other tests of your lungs
- Colonoscopy if you’re over 50 or have blood in your stool
- Dental clearance to check for and help prevent infections
- EKG and other heart tests
- Pap smear and mammogram
- Referral to smoking cessation classes if you’re a smoker
- Vaccinations
- Vascular screening
Vaccinations should include:
- COVID-19
- Hepatitis A and B
- HPV depending on the age criteria
- Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR)
- Pneumococcal disease
- Seasonal flu
- Shingles depending on the age criteria
- Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (TDAP)
Please note: If you have a referring physician who can send over any recent results or vaccination records, that’s incredibly helpful to our team.
Most of the kidney transplants in the US come from deceased kidney donors. In Southern California, the waiting time for a deceased donor kidney can range from five to 12 years depending on your blood type.
Through the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, the federal government oversees transplantation, including distribution of deceased donor organs. HHS contracts with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to administer the waiting list.
The transplant experts who oversee UNOS include transplant surgeons and representatives from organ-procurement agencies, patients and the donors' families. By consensus, the organs are donated to patients based on equal access and social utility principles.
Surgeons place the donated kidney in the pelvis through an incision, attaching the new organ to your blood vessels and bladder.
During a kidney/pancreas transplant, the kidney is typically transplanted first, followed by the pancreas. Both organs are connected to your blood vessels and, for the pancreas, the digestive tract.
Unlike living donation – where the kidney comes directly from the donor to the recipient – deceased donor kidneys are often injured by the death and preservation processes. As a result, a delay in kidney function might occur. Occasionally, dialysis is continued until the deceased donor kidney begins to function.
When dialysis is needed, deceased donor kidneys may take up to two weeks to begin functioning.
Kidneys from live donors have a long-term survival rate roughly two to three times longer than the long-term survival of a deceased donor transplant. Also, with a living donation, a delay in kidney function is uncommon; function could be restored almost immediately.
The operation to remove a kidney from a living donor has undergone many improvements over the past several years, so there is less hospital time and a faster recovery.
Our surgeons perform a minimally invasive open nephrectomy, or surgical removal of the kidney, through an incision that’s less than half the size of a traditional incision. This gives the surgery team excellent control over the large blood vessels providing circulation to the kidney, resulting in less hospital time and a faster recovery than standard nephrectomy.
On-Site Kidney Dialysis Center
If you’re undergoing dialysis before or after your kidney transplant, our Kidney Dialysis Center is conveniently located in the very same building as the Multi-Organ Transplant Center.
The team provides a comprehensive variety of on-site services, while offering at-home services as well.
Find a Doctor
At Providence, you'll have access to a vast network of dedicated and compassionate providers who offer personalized care by focusing on treatment, prevention and health education.
Recognition
U.S. News & World Report - High Performing Hospital in Kidney Failure (2024-25)
Frequently Asked Questions
When you’re selecting a hospital, it's important to make an informed decision. Look closely at the qualifications and performance of their kidney transplant program:
- The program should have favorable outcomes data, such as the results reported by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR).
- The program should be in good standing with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health Services (DHS) and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).
- Also, ask if the program has received any corrective or disqualifying action from these organizations.
While dialysis is an excellent treatment, it only replaces 12% of your kidney function. You need your kidneys to function at 30% to feel well.
And while you don’t need to take immunosuppressant medications while you’re on dialysis – which you will need if you get a transplant – prolonged dialysis can also increase your risk of infections and heart disease.
Your first visit is an orientation. We’ll start by providing you with orders for bloodwork and assigning you to a transplant RN coordinator.
You can also access other supportive services, such as meeting with a financial coordinator and/or a dietitian at that time.
Eventually, you’ll also be assigned to a transplant social worker.
Your transplant social worker is a licensed clinical social worker with special education regarding the transplant process.
The social worker meets with you and your loved ones to help evaluate how you're able to cope with the stress of the surgery, your understanding of the transplant process and your ability to follow a complicated treatment plan before and after surgery.
They also help you identify a strong support network and make referrals to other support services as needed.
Your transplant coordinator works closely with you throughout the transplant process:
- Your coordinator will provide you and your loved ones with detailed information about everything from your initial evaluation to post-transplant care. They update your entire care team and keep everyone informed during each stage of the process.
- Your coordinator is focused on assisting you and helping you navigate the evaluation process. They also make sure that all your required documentation for the transplant is complete.
- Each RN coordinator has a clinical program assistant to help schedule tests, consultations, and your surgery. The assistant also helps schedule any follow-up or specialty care appointments that you need.
Once your evaluation is complete and your transplant coordinator has presented your test results to the transplant committee, there are three possible outcomes:
- You’ll be accepted and placed on the national wait list.
- You’ll be deferred because the transplant committee needs more information; your transplant coordinator will follow up with you and possibly schedule more tests and procedures.
- You’ll be declined because the committee decided that the transplant risks outweigh the benefits.
You’ll be notified of the decision over the phone and in writing.
Yes! You must bring a family member or loved one when you meet with the surgeon for the first time.
Family involvement is key to a successful outcome. Your loved ones also stay in touch with your transplant coordinator during the process, and they help you take care of your new kidney and/or pancreas.
If you don’t have a living donor and are waiting for a deceased donor kidney, the average wait time can range anywhere from four to 12 years depending on your blood type.
Here are the steps you need to take if you’re on the transplant waiting list:
- Always provide us with an updated list of phone numbers. Per UNOS policy, we only have one hour to accept an organ for you.
- Make sure that we have your most up-to-date insurance information and call us immediately if there are any changes.
- Keep us informed about any new illnesses, transfusions or hospitalizations.
- Schedule your annual evaluation with the transplant team.
Keep in mind that we may need to see you more frequently depending on whether there are any changes to your health.
Our medical team works side-by-side with your referring nephrologist. Their collaboration is especially important following your transplant; they play a crucial role in helping achieve the best possible outcomes.
Their role in transplant care management includes:
- Early referral for candidacy evaluation, ideally before dialysis
- Pre-transplant communication about condition changes that could affect your candidacy
- Post-transplant evaluation and management of age-related malignancies, bone health, cardiac risk, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and post-transplant diabetes
- Post-transplant communication about any infection, transplant dysfunction or transplant-related malignancy
If you’re receiving a living kidney donation, you’ll likely be in the hospital for two to three days, pending any complications. Living donors will likely be in the hospital for only a day.
If you’re receiving a deceased kidney or kidney/pancreas donation, you could be in the hospital from three to seven days, pending any complications.
If you require dialysis post-surgery, and live further away from the Center, we may choose to keep you longer for monitoring.
There are surgical risks and complications that accompany a kidney or kidney/pancreas transplant:
- You could experience delayed kidney function, or your body could reject the organ(s).
- You might require a blood transfusion during surgery.
- Fluid could build around your kidney, causing impaired function, infections, pain and/or elevated blood pressure.
- Because you’re taking immunosuppressant medications, your immune system will be compromised and your risk of heart problems, high or low blood pressure, diabetes and cancer could increase.
The first month after your transplant, you’ll need to get labs at least three times a week, possibly every day. You’ll have an office visit once a week and stay in constant contact with your transplant nurses. If there are complications, we may need to readmit you to the hospital.
By the third month post-transplant, we’re hopeful that you’ll only need labs once a week. You’ll continue to have weekly office visits, but some of your medications may be reduced or stopped.
A year after your transplant, we’re hopeful that we’ll only need to see you for an annual visit at the Center. This means you’re doing well! We’ll still recommend monthly labs, but the majority of your care will be handled by your nephrologist and primary care physician.
Yes, we want to accommodate all patients.
We can obtain medical consent through translation services.
Today, living donors don’t have to be related, so spouses, friends and other emotionally related individuals can give the gift of life.
Many transplant candidates might have willing living donors and not know even know it.
In general, the donor should meet the following criteria:
- Donors must be over 18 years old.
- Donors must have good health and good kidney function.
- Donors need to be personally motivated to donate a kidney.
- Donors also need to have a compatible blood type, which means:
- The same blood type as you
- Blood type O, a universal donor
- Blood sub type A2, which can be transplanted into blood type A and many O or B recipients
In select cases, blood type incompatible transplant might also be an option.
If a donor meets the above criteria, they undergo a thorough evaluation process, including a review of medical history, a physical examination and various tests to ensure that they can safely donate.
To schedule an initial donor evaluation, please contact the Center at the number above.
The medical costs associated with being a living donor are generally covered by the recipient's insurance, including diagnostic tests, surgery, the hospital stay and any follow-up appointments with a kidney specialist. However, insurance coverage does vary.
Please note, payment for organ donation is illegal. However, support related to expenses incurred due to donation may be appropriate.
We cannot accept donors who were promised payment for donation or solicited by any means, including advertising or donor/recipient matching services.