Providers’ View on the First Kidney Transplantation Center in Ethiopia: Experience From Past to Present

INTRODUCTION: Transplantation is the optimal management for patients with end-stage renal disease. In Ethiopia, the first national kidney transplantation center was opened at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in September 2015. The aim of this study was to explore providers’ views and experiences of the past to present at this center. METHODS: A qualitative study design was employed from 1(st) November to 15(th) December, 2019. To ensure that appropriate informants would provide rich study data, 8 health care providers and top management members were purposefully chosen for in-depth interviews. A maximum variation sampling method was considered to include a representative sample of informants. Interviews were digitally audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Transcribed data was coded and analyzed using Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Minor Lite software and Microsoft-Excel. RESULT: The participants (5 males and 3 females) approached were from different departments of the renal transplant center, and the main hospital. Eight main themes and 18 sub-themes were generated initially from all interviews totaling to 109 index codes. Further evaluation and recoding retained 5 main themes, and 14 sub-themes. The main themes are; challenges experienced during and after launching the center, commitment, sympathy and satisfaction, outcomes of renal transplant, actions to improve the quality of service, and how the transplant center should operate. Providers claim that they discharge their responsibilities through proper commitment and compassion, paying no attention to incentive packages. They also explained that renal transplantation would have all the outcomes related to economic, humanistic and clinical facets. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: A multitude of challenges were faced during and after the establishment of the first renal transplant center in Ethiopia. Providers discharge their responsibility through a proper compassion for patients. Concerned stakeholders should actively collaborate to improve the quality of renal transplant services in the center.