That changed this summer with the opening of a new Intermountain Health kidney clinic at McKay-Dee Hospital.

While the clinic first opened in the early summer, Intermountain Health sent out a press release last week touting the new facility.

“The new medical office is located across the street from the hospital’s main campus and significantly expands the number of patients who can receive care,” the release said. “37 million Americans have some degree of kidney disease, which is about 1 in 7 adults. Catching issues early and the use of medication has shown to slow chronic kidney disease, according to kidney health experts at Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital.”

Jennifer Christensen, registered nurse and kidney clinic nurse navigator, told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday that the new clinic includes eight exam rooms with room for four to five providers and a conference room for patient educational opportunities.

“Our clinic really emphasizes early detection and treatment to hopefully prevent the progression of kidney disease so that we can hopefully help patients avoid dialysis, transplants and those things that really impact their life if they’re required,” she said.

She said the clinic is a huge leap from where they were just a few years ago.

“We started with a satellite clinic, just one day per week, there at McKay-Dee about four years ago,” she said. “Then we evolved into a full-time clinic over time. We were sharing space with another clinic in the hospital and just recently opened our own clinic where we could have more space to meet the needs of patients requiring kidney care.”

Christensen said having a separate clinic allows them to do more one-on-one work with patients.

“When we were sharing space, we didn’t have a place where we could have on-site education,” she said. “We were really cramped, so we would frequently have to do some of that education through a video visit or over the phone. It’s a lot more valuable to a patient when they can come in and interact with us in person and we can better assess how they’re responding to the information and whether they’re understanding.”

She said it’s also a big moment given these services haven’t always been widely available in the Ogden area.

“There are a lot of patients that weren’t receiving the care they need just because of the availability of nephrology offices in the area,” she said. “There are a few other nephrologists, but they’re few and far between. A lot of people, depending on their insurance, were having to travel out of the Ogden area to Salt Lake to find a nephrologist to meet their needs. This is more accessibility for the community.”

For more information, visit https://intermountainhealthcare.org/services/kidney-care.