Some patients appreciate benefits in for-profit kidney-dialysis system

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Some patients appreciate benefits in for-profit kidney-dialysis system
By Michael Booth
The Denver Post
POSTED: 05/08/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

To critics of the for-profit kidney-dialysis system dominating the U.S. market, corporatization means pressure to please shareholders instead of comfort patients.

To some patients, like 82-year-old Korean War veteran John Rose, the franchising of kidney care means efficiency, investment in technology and reliability wherever he goes.

And Rose does go, despite needing to be tethered to a dialysis machine four hours a day, three times a week. Since starting dialysis 11 years ago, he has used the social workers at corporations such as DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care North America to make dialysis appointments for him on travels to Costa Rica, Aruba and an upcoming trip to Turks & Caicos.

When he gets to those exotic destinations, he says, he feels confident his care will be uniform and reliable.

"You can't beat the assistance you get," said Rose, finishing his four hours in a chair at the busy DaVita dialysis center at Lowry. Rose has a fistula in his right arm to ease blood access for dialysis, part of an industrywide push to implement safer fistulas in as many patients as possible.

"You've got a great team working with you," said Rose, who has traveled to Washington, D.C., as an "ambassador" and patient advocate on kidney-care issues.

Dr. Melissa Yanover, a Denver nephrologist who worked with Da Vita and now sees patients at a Fresenius clinic, said DaVita is clearly focused on the bottom line. But that, she said, is not necessarily a negative — a company with profits has money to spend on technology and expanding clinics in poorly served areas.

"DaVita, Fresenius, all these companies run clinics better than we doctors could today, given the increase in technology and regulation," Yanover said.


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