Kidney tranplant program approved ERIE — The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says a northwestern Pennsylvania hospital has the region’s first and only accredited kidney transplant program.UPMC Hamot in Erie has received final approval from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and from United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit that oversees America’s transplant system.UPMC says four transplant surgeries have been performed there in the past year as part of the accreditation process.Transplant patients in northwestern Pennsylvania previously had to travel as far as Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Buffalo for the surgeries and pre- and post-operative care.

Ikea to expand parental leaveNEW YORK — Ikea’s U.S. division is offering longer parental leave to employees who are new parents, following similar overtures from tech companies like Netflix as it strives to keep good workers in an improving job market.The ready-to-assemble furniture chain said Tuesday it will offer its 13,000 salaried and hourly employees in the U.S. up to four months of paid parental leave. Effective Jan. 1, the policy will apply to mothers and fathers who are birth, adoptive or foster parents. Ikea had previously given women giving birth five days of paid leave in addition to six to eight weeks of paid disability leave.Ikea’s move, part of its drive to improve its relations with workers, follows pay increases in the past two years that brought the average minimum hourly wage to $11.87.The plan gives Ikea employees of more than a year up to three months of paid leave, at full base wage for the first six weeks and 50 percent after that. Employees of at least three years can take up to four months, with eight weeks at full pay and eight weeks at half.Ikea is also offering an unpaid sabbatical for all employees, including part-time workers, based on tenure, for up to a year. Previously, it offered a personal leave of 30 days.