State-of-the Art Dialysis Center Brings New Life to Patients In Imperial Valley

June 29, 2010
State-of-the Art Dialysis Center Brings New Life to Patients In Imperial Valley

By Luke Phillips

Patients in the Imperial Valley who rely on dialysis to sustain their lives can now receive care at a new state-of-the-art facility in El Centro.
Fresenius Medical Care, the Imperial Valley’s only dialysis provider, has expanded their capacity for treating dialysis patients with the new facility on Wake Ave.
Fresenius Director of Operations Rene Vallejos says the facility is able to utilize the newest and best technologies because of the way the company is organized. Fresenius Medical Care operates under a system called Vertical Integration which means that everything used at their facilities, from the dialysis machines to the medications, are developed and manufactured in-house.
Vallejos says that the company has research facilities in San Diego that research and develop better ways of caring for patients.
“The great thing is, as soon as they have it there, we have it here,” Vallejos said.
Vallejos outlined several of the new technologies available at the facility during an open house event last week, including a machine that can test blood without the use of a needle. Vallejos says the machine uses flashing lights to read levels of hemoglobin and other components in a patents’ blood.
“People always think that for the best care they have to go to the biggest town,” Vallejo said. “It’s great to be able to tell patients that they have that right here.”
Vallejos says that Fresenius Medical Care does sell equipment and technology to other dialysis companies, but the newest and best is never sold to competitors.
“We don’t give them all the bells and whistles,” he said.
One of the technologies that can only be found at Fresenius is a series of green, yellow and red lights that sit atop the dialysis machines and light up to confirm different stages of the blood-cleansing process.
“I used to work for the competition and I wanted the lights, but they wouldn’t give them to me,” Vallejos said. He says that the light system is important because without it, there is no way of completely confirming that the treatment has been completed.
The company does it’s part to help the environment too. By utilizing their Vertical Integration system, they are able to run the operation much more efficiently, saving energy in the process. New technologies also help the company to stay green.
“We don’t really use paper here,” Vallejos said, showing one of the touch-screen monitors that sit beside every dialysis station and call up patient records and other information with nothing more than a flick of the finger.
Vallejos says that the touch-screen monitors, or chair-side monitors as he calls them, will also soon be obsolete. He says the company is in the process of switching over to the Apple iPad, a new tablet computer that doctors will be able to carry with them wherever they go.
“If you come back in a couple years, you probably won’t see a computer in here,” he said.
The facility has it’s own reverse osmosis water filtration system to filter chlorine and other harmful chemicals from the water used in the dialysis process, and also a facility to manufacture medications used in the process, and the whole system is gravity-fed to save energy.

Vallejo says that the company stays green in order to survive the current economic crisis “To stay alive, we really have to learn to utilize our resources more economically,” he said.
Vallejo says the clinic, which opened Monday, can service up yo 260 people, but about 120 of those spots are already taken by patients transferring from other Fresenius facilities around the valley.
The company strives to create an environment of ease and comfort for their patients. The new facility features dozens of dialysis machines laid out in a welcoming, open space with hardwood floors throughout. Each patient will have his own personal LCD monitor with cable TV and a free wireless internet signal. With most dialysis patients requiring three-hour treatments three or four times a week, Vallejo says creating a comfortable environment is important.
“Some of our patients spend more time with us than they do with their kids,” Vallejo said. “So we kind of become a family.”
The company was started decades ago in Brawley by Horacia Rodiles, a man that Vallejo calls ‘the father of dialysis here.” He says Rodiles had expanded to nearly every city in the Imperial Valley before being bought by the German company Fresenius Medical Care.
“It’s really a diamond in the rough out here,” Vallejo said. “The mortality rates are a lot lower here. That’s because of the care that they (the patients) receive here.”

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