Saving lives while helping the planet

The MCH Dialysis Centre goes green

Healthcare activities can have effects on the environment. On the other hand, rising temperatures and pollution also have an impact on health. In an attempt to break this vicious circle, the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) Dialysis Centre has decided to look into “green nephrology”, with more than promising results. It is the first pediatric dialysis centre in Canada to set up such a project.

Patients on dialysis have kidney problems; their kidneys are no longer able to clean their blood properly. Dialysis performs this vital task for them. However, this process consumes a lot of water. During dialysis treatment, the patient is connected to a dialyzer. Their blood is sent into the dialyzer, where it is cleaned with water and dialysate. The clean blood is then returned to the patient.

Dialysate flow consumes an average of 500 ml of water per minute per patient. Medical student Leina Kingdom and Dr. Marie-Michèle Gaudreault-Tremblay, pediatric nephrologist and director of the Kidney Transplant Program at the MCH, wondered how this ecological footprint could be reduced.

After some research, they realized that there were already features on the dialysis machine to reduce water consumption without affecting the quality of the treatment. These had already been clinically tested and make it possible to adjust the quantity of water used to the patient’s blood flow. Thanks to these modifications, it is now possible to reduce dialysate flow to 300 ml of water per minute, which represents a substantial saving of 98 litres of water per patient with each treatment!

Leina and Dr. Gaudreault-Tremblay want to continue this quality improvement project and expand their actions. They are currently looking for ways to reduce the energy consumption of the Dialysis Centre and to promote active and public transportation among its staff members.