Hmmm.. does it HAVE to be DaVita?

[Desert Dancer]

Andy and I are traveling to New Jersey for a week-and-a-half in May and the ONLY DaVita clinic is an hour away from his mom's house. There are only two dialysis clinics near her home; one is a DCA clinic and the other is physician-owned.

My question is: just because I am a DaVita patient does that mean I HAVE to go to a DaVita clinic when I travel? Certainly it would probably be easier on the clinics involved because it's just an intra-clinic transfer of records and such, but having to travel an hour each way three days out of eight is really going to be a pain in the  .

So, does anyone know? It's probably going to be a moot point anyway because I highly doubt any clinic in that county will let me do self-care and that's a dealbreaker. (It's one of the poorest counties in the nation with some of the worst education levels; I've dealt with the two nephrologists there and they're both paternalistic idiots. One of them actually said, "Pee-Pee" and "Poop" to me during our [last] office visit and his 'care' damn near killed me.) The DaVita clinic is a home hemo training clinic like mine so there will probably be no problems there.

I'm a Medicare-only patient so I'm not sure why I'd have to stay with a particular chain.

[MooseMom]

My mom dialyzed in a Davita clinic near her home, but whenever she came up here to Chicago to visit me, she'd dialyze either at what will be my clinic (privately owned) or a nearby Fresenius clinic.  She was Medicare only.

[cattlekid]

When I was a Fresenius patient, I dialyzed at a not-for profit center while I was on vacation.  It was the loveliest experience of my in-center life.  The SW didn't seem to have a problem setting me up wherever I wanted to go.

[Trikkechickk]

No.  I'm a home hemo client w/Davita.  I have done D at a Fresnius Clinic in different towns.  No problem.

Your clinic will help w/the appts.

[Desert Dancer]

Thanks, all! I guess I'll make a couple phone calls, then.

[Desert Dancer]

Oh, yay, yay, YAY!!! 

I found a clinic 4 MILES AWAY that will let me do self-care! I will have to bring my own blunts since they don't have any buttonhole supplies there, but I can do my own thing!  Woo-HOO! Much better than having to drive an hour each way. And I may be able to get the 5:00 AM shift so we'll have all our days free.

Unfortunately there's no way I can get more than four hour treatments, though. Guess I'll have to ship out my binders and stick to a renal diet that week. Ugh.