Hemodialysis.com presents information about the major companies that provide hemodialysis and other dialysis services.
Davita Inc.
Summary facts regarding Davita Inc.:
· DaVita Inc., a Fortune 500® company, is a leading provider of kidney care in the United States , delivering dialysis services and education to patients with chronic kidney failure and end stage renal disease.
· DaVita operates or provides administrative services at over 1,500 outpatient dialysis facilities and acute units in approximately 720 hospitals located in 43 states and the District of Columbia , serving approximately 118,000 patients.
· DaVita develops, participates in and donates to numerous programs dedicated to transforming communities and creating positive, sustainable change for children, families and our environment.
· The company’s leadership development initiatives and corporate social responsibility efforts have been recognized by Fortune, Modern Healthcare, Newsweek and WorldBlu, among others.
· Headquarters: Lakewood , Colorado .
· www.davita.com
Below is an excerpt from an interview with DaVita CEO and Chairman , Kent Thiry, conducted by Latif Lewis and published in DailyFinance on December 26, 2009.
DailyFinance: For our readers who may not be familiar with DaVita, can you describe your business model?
Kent Thiry: Most of us have a couple of kidneys. These kidneys are amazing organs - some of the most complex, sophisticated organs in the human body. This is why they've been so difficult to replicate compared to other organs like the heart, lungs and others. Normally, our blood is cleansed through urination. If you’ve lost kidney function, your blood cannot be cleansed in this manner.
Therefore, when the kidneys fail, you have two options: dialyze or be one of the fortunate few to get a transplant. We operate the facilities that people visit if their kidneys fail and they can't get a transplant.
Our facilities care for these people - typically three times a week - four hours each time. Their blood is removed from their body, cleansed of all the toxins and then put back in with additional nutrients.
We do that at more than 1,500 centers across America for 118,000 patients - every single week.
As a health care service provider, what's your view on the health care legislation currently being debated in Congress?
Kent Thiry: For us, 85% of our patients are in Medicare - and the government doesn't cover the full cost of their care. So the other 15% of our patients have to pay extra in order to make up for the government deficit.
So, if a Medicare extension means that human beings who are not getting good care today can get good care, that's great. But in our particular community - the dialysis community - we already take care of everybody and for us it could be quite economically dangerous. For example…to the extent that we end up with more patients at Medicare rates, then we have a lot of facilities that are at risk of being closed.
Positively, we have done a number of tests with the government over the last three years and have proven that by providing more integrated patient care, we can simultaneously dramatically reduce the total cost of care and improve quality.
This is the part of health-care legislation that is very exciting for us.
To read the rest of the interview with DaVita's CEO Kent Thiry, please click here.
New Feature from Hemodialysis.com: Hemodialysis or Chronic Kidney Disease Abstract of the Week
Association of Cumulatively Low or High Serum Calcium Levels with Mortality in Long-Term Hemodialysis Patients.
Am J Nephrol. 2010 Sep 3;32(5):403-413.
Miller JE, Kovesdy CP, Norris KC, Mehrotra R, Nissenson AR, Kopple JD, Kalantar-Zadeh K.
Harold Simmons Center for Kidney Disease Research and Epidemiology,Torrance, Calif., USA.
Abstract
Background: The outcome-predictability of baseline and instantaneously changing serum calcium in hemodialysis patients has been examined. We investigated the mortality-predictability of time-averaged calcium values to reflect the 'cumulative' effect of calcium burden over time. Methods: We employed a Cox model using up-to-5-year (7/2001-6/2006) time-averaged values to examine the mortality-predictability of cumulative serum calcium levels in 107,200 hemodialysis patients prior to the use of calcimimetics, but during the time where other calcium-lowering interventions, including lower dialysate calcium, were employed.
Results: Both low (<9.0 mg/dl) and high (>10.0 mg/dl) calcium levels were associated with increased mortality (reference: 9.0 to <9.5 mg/dl). Whereas mortality of hypercalcemia was consistent, hypocalcemia mortality was most prominent with higher serum phosphorus (>3.5 mg/dl) and PTH levels (>150 pg/ml).
Higher paricalcitol doses shifted the calcium range associated with the greatest survival to the right, i.e. from 9.0 to <9.5 to 9.5 to <10.0 mg/dl. African-Americans exhibited the highest death hazard ratio of hypocalcemia <8.5 mg/dl, being 1.35 (95% CI: 1.22-1.49). Both a rise and drop in serum calcium over 6 months were associated with increased mortality compared to the stable group.
Conclusions: Whereas in hemodialysis patients cumulatively high or low calcium levels are associated with higher death risk, subtle but meaningful interactions with phosphorus, PTH, paricalcitol dose and race exist.
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