Press Release: Ridgecrest Regional Hospital Launches Enhanced Kidney (Nephrology) Treatment & Dialysis Services With Keck Medicine of USC Nephrologists

Wednesday June 23, 2021, RIDGECREST, Calif. – Ridgecrest Regional Hospital (RRH) is collaborating with Keck Medicine of USC to offer inpatient and outpatient nephrology services for kidney care and acute inpatient dialysis treatments to Indian Wells Valley and its surrounding communities.

The nephrology services will launch with acute care inpatient consulting and dialysis services starting July 6. The outpatient nephrology clinic will begin soon after. The clinic will be staffed by a monthly rotation of faculty from the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension in the Department of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Telehealth clinic staffing will be offered on a weekly basis in between monthly in-person clinics.

“Each year RRH transfers out approximately 70 patients who are in acute or urgent need of dialysis. By partnering with a wider network of resources, we are making health care more convenient and reducing the need to travel out of town,” said RRH Chief Medical Officer Susan Reynolds, MD, PhD.

“RRH continues to expand services, bringing world-class care and treatment closer to home,” said RRH President/CEO Jim Suver. “This is central to our overall strategy of providing quality and compassionate medical care that is convenient for our patients. We are thrilled to be collaborating once again with the clinical excellence of Keck Medicine and look forward to welcoming their faculty from the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension on site.”

The expansion or RRH’s nephrology services marks Keck Medicine’s third collaboration with the hospital. In 2019, Keck Medicine and RRH launched the community’s first ever neurospine clinic. The two organizations also announced a rotation of USC Urology physicians and enhanced urology services in January 2020.

“We are delighted to broaden Keck Medicine’s collaboration with RRH and expand our suite of services for the Indian Wells community,” says Kenneth Hallows, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Patients at RRH will be seen by the same physicians who practice at Keck Hospital of USC, one of the top ranked hospitals for nephrology care in the nation.”

The Nephrology outpatient clinic will be located in the RRH East Medical Plaza Suite 2nd Floor, currently home to USC services for urology and neurosurgery.

Physicians on rotation will include:

• Kenneth Hallows, MD, PhD
• Arshia Ghaffari, DO
• Nuha Ibrahim, MD
• May Lwin, MD
• Nuria Pastor-Soler, MD, PhD
• Yasir Qazi, MD
• Roshan Rajani, MD
• Neeraj Sharma, MD
• Miroslaw Smogorzewski, MD, PhD
• Santhi Voora, MD

To make an appointment for RRH nephrology services, contact (760) 463-8930.

Pictured from Left to Right: Adan Martinez Gonzalez, RRH Director of Clinic Financial Operations; Laura Alder, BSN, RN, CCRN RRH Administrator of Clinical Nursing Operations; Susan Reynolds, MD, PhD RRH Chief Medical Officer; Arshia Ghaffari, DO, MA, MBA, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Chief, Director of Dialysis Services, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Medical Director, DaVita/USC Kidney Center; Kenneth Hallows, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Director of the USC/UKRO Kidney Research Center; Nuria Pastor-Soler, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; James Suver, FACHE RRH President/CEO; Celia Mills RN, PHN, BSN, MSN, RRH Administrator of Care Coordination & Community Health; Charles Pietrangelo, RRH Director of Business Development.

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