The Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta, Maine, is temporarily closing its dialysis center to outpatients due to a nursing shortage, CBS-affiliate TV station WGME reports.
Stephen Sears, MD, chief of staff at the VA Maine Healthcare System, said three more dialysis nurses are leaving in the next few weeks, "which will leave us two [nurses] short to safely provide the dialysis."
The dialysis nurse shortage soon will make it unsafe to treat veterans at the center, Dr. Sears said.
"Their safety comes first," Dr. Sears said of the veterans. "And if we can't do something in a way that we want to, and safely, we think it is best to have them cared for outside of the VA at this point in time."
The hospital is arranging for patients to continue treatments at a dialysis center in a nearby community for free.
Dr. Sears said it will take time to hire six to eight dialysis nurses, but he hopes to reopen the dialysis center to outpatients in two or three months.