International Services
Patients come to UPMC from more than 2,000 towns and cities in America and 30 foreign countries.
UPMC offers a wide range of auxiliary services to ensure that patients and their families receive the highest standard of coordinated care. This care is responsive to each patient's clinical, cultural, and spiritual needs. Services provided begin in coordination with the patient's doctors at home, before arrival in the United States, and continue long after treatment.
In addition, UPMC transplantation services also are available through ISMETT, a specialized medical center located
in Palermo, Italy.
Hospitality Services
- arrangements for an interpreter to greet patients and their families at the airport and accompany them to their prearranged housing location
- assistance with air and ground travel
- arrangements for accommodations, depending on each patient’s needs — Family House provides convenient, affordable housing for patients and their families traveling to Pittsburgh for treatment of serious illnesses.
- assistance in planning tours, day trips, and shopping trips as requested
- reading materials, such as periodicals and books, and videos in each patient’s language
Transplantation Services
- communicating with physicians
- moving around the hospital and the Pittsburgh area
- understanding administrative and financial documents
- translating medical documents for use after returning home
Medical Services
- arrangements for air ambulance services
- arrangements for special foods and nutritional needs
- follow-up care, including rehabilitation, pharmacy services, medical services, and special therapy
- preventive medicine for family members while in Pittsburgh, including checkups, clinic visits, and prescriptions
Administrative and Financial Services
- assistance with admissions processes
- communications and computer help, including internet access, long-distance calling, faxing, and copying
- assistance with local bank accounts, wire transfers, check cashing, and other transactions
- coordination of bills and payments for medical care
- coordination of discharge planning with medical staff
Cultural Services
- assistance with religious needs
- arrangements for cultural and religious dietary needs
- liaison to appropriate ethnic communities in the Pittsburgh area
Contacting the Starzl Institute
To contact the Starzl Institute from locations outside the United States and Canada:
| Method |
How |
| Telephone |
01-412-647-5800 or
1-877-640-6746, toll free |
| Fax |
412-647-5070 |
| Mail |
Thomas E. Starzl
Transplantation Institute
UPMC Montefiore, 7 South
3459 Fifth Ave.
Pittsburgh,PA 15213
Attention: Transplant Referral |
| E-mail |
transplant@upmc.edu |
ISMETT - The Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Specialized Therapies
The Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Specialized Therapies (Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie ad Alta Specializzazione, or ISMETT) is an international center for specialized medicine serving the people of the Mediterranean region. Located in Palermo, the capital of the Italian island of Sicily, ISMETT was founded as a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Cervello and Civico hospitals in Palermo, and the Sicilian regional government.
The new ISMETT building in Palermo was dedicated in early 2004. The five-level, 12,000-square-meter facility is located next to the Civico Hospital's cardiac surgery division. The center features four operating rooms, 70 beds (44 on the ward, 14 in the intensive care unit, and 12 in the PACU), and all the clinical, laboratory, and support services necessary to maintain a modern, full-function transplantation center, including a floor dedicated to dialysis services.
At ISMETT, UPMC transplant surgeons, transplantation medicine specialists, and other clinical specialists have helped train and staff a world-class center that offers lifesaving transplants and other previously unavailable specialized medical procedures to the people of Sicily and southern Italy. In addition, organizers expect it to become a major referral center for other Mediterranean countries, such as Egypt, with which the center has already established a telemedicine consulting service.
> Visit ISMETT's website