COLUMBUS - Columbus Community Hospital will be offering residents a new service later this month.

CCH announced Monday that it will be adding a new inpatient hemodialysis service starting August 20th. Through the service, CCH inpatients will now be able to receive dialysis at the hospital.

CCH says that the medical director of the new service will be Dr. Bryce Lund of Nephrology Care, LLC. Dr. Lund is a nephrologist, which is a doctor that specializes in kidney care and treating diseases of the kidneys, and he will connect with patients at CCH through telemedicine technology provided by Bryan Telemedicine.

“Lots of rural hospitals today don’t have a nephrologist in town or as part of the hospital staff on an ongoing basis to manage these types of programs,” said Shane Fleming, cofounder and chief operating officer of Bryan Telemedicine, “So what we do, is provide a piece of technology– a telemedicine cart – that allows Dr. Lund to see those patients in a virtual capacity and assess them.”

CCH says that in the past, patients in the community who receive dialysis were obliged to go elsewhere when they required hospitalization, but now residents that require daily dialysis can come to CCH for medical care. The new hemodialysis service will be available Monday - Saturday, and it is offered through a partnership between CCH, Bryan Telemedicine, Dialysis Center of Columbus, and Nephrology Care, LLC.