St Bernardine Medical Center To Provide Enhanced Transplant Services For Inland Empire Patients

Agreement With St Vincent Medical Center Provides Patients With Access To Premier Transplant Program

LOS ANGELES (BUSINESS WIRE) - St. Bernardine Medical Center has entered into an agreement that will further strengthen its ability to provide comprehensive transplantation services to the Inland Empire.

The agreement between the San Bernardino hospital and St. Vincent Medical Center, the oldest hospital in Los Angeles, will provide the Inland Empire further access to kidney-pancreas, heart, and liver transplants.

The agreement, which takes effect today, will allow patients in the Inland Empire to conveniently receive all related pre-transplant and post-transplant care at St. Bernardine Medical Center. Transplant patients will receive only the procedure itself at St. Vincent Medical Center. St. Bernardine Medical Center will continue to provide the community with kidney transplants as it has since 1988.

The agreement provides patients in the Inland Empire access to one of Southern California's premier transplantation centers. In 1998, St. Vincent Medical Center -- a sister hospital to St. Bernardine Medical Center -- performed more kidney-pancreas transplants than any other institution in the state, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the agency that manages the national transplant waiting list and matches donors to recipients. Kidney-pancreas transplantation provides a new lease on life for diabetics whose pancreas and kidneys fail.

Under the agreement, St. Vincent Medical Center's kidney transplantation team will supplement St. Bernardine Medical Center's kidney transplant program by helping to provide services as needed. St. Vincent Medical Center performed the second highest number of kidney transplants in the state in 1998.

St. Vincent Medical Center and St. Bernardine Medical Center are members of the Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) family of hospitals, one of the leading not-for-profit health care systems in the Western United States. CHW encourages, supports, facilitates and initiates programs throughout the system to promote health and wholeness for the sick, the poor and the disadvantaged and to comfort the suffering and the dying.

CHW includes 46 hospitals, more than 38,000 employees, almost 9,000 active medical staff and thousands of dedicated volunteers in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Contact:St. Vincent Medical Center

Fred Sohl, 213/207-5604

or

St. Bernardine Medical Center

Suzanne Jezek-Arriaga, 909/475-5045

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