New blog post from DaVita CMO on quality of life

[cattlekid]

There is another thread on which we were discussing quality of life.  Here is a post somewhat on that topic from the Chief Medical Officer of DaVita.  It is slightly in response to a tweet that I sent to Dr. Provenanzo, VP of Medical Affairs, tweeting the recent article from the Wall Street Journal on quality of life in healthcare.

Please take a minute to check it out, including my response to Dr. Nissenson.  Please add your comments as well.  I feel that as patients, these individuals need to hear our voices directly - not filtered through some other "patient organization" that will probably just tell them what they want them to hear.

Here's the link:

http://www.davita.com/physicians/allen-blog/?p=226

[MooseMom]

I had read the referenced WSJ article some time ago, which sorta was the genesis of the quality of life thread.  I've just read Dr. Nissenson's blog post...thanks for posting that link.  I didn't see your comment, though.  Maybe it just hasn't been moderated and posted yet?  Can you tell us the gist of it?  Thanks.

[cattlekid]

The basic gist of my comment was the following:

I thanked Dr. Niesseon for his post and said that based on his comments on QoL, what is DaVita doing in the following areas:

1.  Moving more patients out of the centers and home (either via home hemo or PD)
2.  Encouraging the development of alternative therapies (wearable/implantable devices)

I am curious to see what his answers will be.  I would think that his goal should be to get as many people out of the centers as possible, but I'd like to see the response.

[MooseMom]

Cattlekid, in case you didn't see my post on "When worlds collide", but I'll tell you that my husband is currently teaching a Business Law class.  One of his students is the head of Davita's Chicagoland home dialysis division, and during a break last night, she was telling my husband (who had mentioned that I was scoping out HHD) that they are encouraging more and more patients to do home D because the clinical outcomes are so much better AND it is cheaper overall.  I don't have any reason to think she was lying.  And this may be the case just in Chicagoland; I don't know if Davita is putting more into home D in other parts of the country.

Yes, please post his response.  I'm curious, too.

[Zach]

DaVita does own a percentage of NxStage.

[dialysisadvocate]

Interesting -- NOW they are referring more patients to home dialysis when they have known for quite some time that outcomes are better... the reason -cheaper -- as far as I am concerned.

Forgive my === well, whatever it is called, but I have to say I wish those at Davita, who are blogging take a look at their facilities in California at our website www.qualitysafepatientcare.com and tell me why
STAFF CAN NOT ADHERE TO THE DAVITA POLICIES, THE MOST BASIC OF BASIC OF HAND WASHING
WHY STAFF ARE NOT ADEQUATELY TRAINED AND EDUCATED AS TO THE RATIONALE BEHIND FOLLOWING DAVITA'S POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
AND, WHY DOES DAVITA NOT STRESS THIS MORE -- the surveys speak for themselves.. Sorry, but I have had it with these corporate level people making statements but the care in units, as evidenced in survey findings has NOT changed. and why, I ask them, knowing for years and years that infection is the number two killer of patients, do their staff not wash their hands in many units. THEN< WOULD THEY WANT TO RecEIVE care that is shown in some of the survey findings?
And, yes, many of the organizations that are patient advocacy groups are someway, some how, connected to the industry via funding, grants, etc... and what does this tell you?
opinions of Roberta Mikles www.qualitysafepatientcare.com