Cost of Traveling to Follow-up Appointments at Kidney Transplant Clinics

The number of kidney transplant (KT) recipients has increased in recent years, saturating kidney transplant visits at transplant centers (TCs). Furthermore, some patients live far from TCs, which adds displacement costs to their expenses. To solve these problems, joint follow-up of KT recipients has been initiated at TCs and referral hospitals.

We performed a cross-sectional study in a cohort of 64 KT recipients during joint follow-up in TCs and the Hospital Arnau de Villanova (HAV) using a survey that evaluated the displacement costs as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Distance (320 km [IQR, 300-340 km] vs 15 km [IQR, 4-60 km]; P < .001), time (240 minutes [IQR, 210-240 minutes] vs 40 minutes [IQR, 30-68 minutes]; P < .001), total economic cost per visit (€60 [IQR, €50-90] vs €10 [IQR, €2-15]; P < .001), and annual CO₂ emission (32.3 kg vs 1.4 kg; P < .05) were greater when patients traveled to TCs. Nephrologists at both TCs and HAV were rated positively by patients, while the displacement costs associated with travel to the TCs and the smaller size of the HAV were seen as negative aspects. Overall, 93.75% of the KT recipients preferred joint follow-up.

This study suggests that joint follow-up between TCs and referral hospitals is an economic and ecological solution for follow-up in KT recipients living far away and visiting their referral hospital, which is the preferred choice for most patients.