Hemodialysis

Location

6th Floor, Providence Building, St. Paul's Hospital

The Hemodialysis Unit is located on the 6th floor. If you need help locating us, please ask one of our hospital volunteers to direct you.

About this clinic

If you have kidney disease and your kidneys aren’t working well, you'll need to replace their function. One way to do this is with a kidney transplant. Another option is a treatment called dialysis. It can replace a certain percentage of your kidney function.

Dialysis removes extra salt, extra water and accumulated waste. You may do dialysis for your whole life, or until you receive a kidney transplant.

There are two main types of dialysis: hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. This page explains the hemodialysis services offered at Providence Health Care.

Visit the Independent dialysis page to learn more about peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis.

We are affiliated with the University of British Columbia’s Division of Nephrology. Our kidney specialists not only take care of patients – they also lead research on kidney disease prevention and treatment.

As a patient in our kidney clinics, you may be approached to participate in a research study. The decision is completely up to you and will not affect your care in any way.

The Division of Nephrology has a strong and internationally-recognized research program. It has expertise in:

• Chronic kidney disease
• Glomerular disease
• Polycystic kidney disease and other genetic kidney diseases
• Pregnancy outcomes in kidney patients
• Kidney transplant outcomes

Most of the patients in the Hemodialysis unit or the Community Dialysis Units come from the Kidney Care Clinics.

If your patient is on dialysis and is moving to Vancouver, please contact visitordialysis@providencehealth.bc.ca to refer them to our service.