NYC Dialysis Center Closes -- NYTimes Article

[florence]

Unsanitary Dialysis Center Shuts Down Over Hepatitis

New York Times Article
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By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: September 16, 2008

A Manhattan dialysis center closed down after State Health Department inspectors found blood on chairs and machines and discovered that at least one patient had contracted hepatitis C because of the unsanitary conditions.

More than 600 other patients treated at the center, going back nearly five years, were urged to get hepatitis and H.I.V. tests.

Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the Health Department, said on Tuesday that it inspected the clinic, the Life Care Dialysis Center, at 221 West 61st Street, for a week in mid-August and found that employees had failed to wash their hands properly, disinfect equipment or change gloves between patients. Inspectors also found blood on treatment chairs.

“It was repulsive,” Ms. Hutton said. “The treatment chairs that they gave people to relax in had someone else’s dried blood on them.”

Ms. Hutton said that the clinic was ordered to begin sending its patients to other clinics immediately while the Health Department began testing patients for signs of infection.

She said that when one patient was found to have been infected by hepatitis C, a liver disease, because of contaminated equipment, the clinic shut down voluntarily.

Richard F. Daines, the state’s health commissioner, sent letters on Monday to 657 patients of the clinic going back to January 2004, the last time infection-control violations had been found, urging them to be tested for possible exposure to hepatitis C, hepatitis B and H.I.V. The clinic, which had 171 patients at the time of the inspection, agreed to pay for the testing, even if it is done by private doctors, officials said.

Ms. Hutton said there was no evidence that other patients had been infected.

Dr. Walter Wasser, the clinic’s operator and medical director, was fined $300,000 and surrendered his operating certificate, Ms. Hutton said. He could face the loss of his medical license after an investigation by the State Office of Professional Medical Conduct, Ms. Hutton said. She declined to say whether such an investigation had begun.

Dr. Wasser did not return a call for comment left with his answering service.

Ms. Hutton said that the Health Department visited the clinic in August to follow up on previous violations, not because of any specific new complaints from patients. She said the department tried to inspect clinics once a year, but was sometimes not able to do so that often because of manpower shortages and the volume of complaints.

She said the department was particularly concerned about dialysis clinics because their patients have compromised immune systems that make them vulnerable.

[willieandwinnie]

  This is sickening. 

[Zach]

This center is a DaVita managed dialysis center.
 

[monrein]

Standards are down but profits most likely are up.  Gives new nuance to the old saying "making a killing".

[okarol]

September 17, 2008
Closure: A Response to the NY Times Article

By Anna Bennett

A day late and a dollar short.  That is how I feel about today's New York Times article "Unsanitary Dialysis Center Shuts Down Over Hepatitis"

I was an in center patient at Life Care from January 12, 2007 until October 26, 2007.  I had a rough time of it, and then Dr. Wasser wisely transitioned me to home hemo. From November 2007 until August 15th, 2008 I was a patient at Life Care, but I only visited the center on my monthly clinic visits.

When I review my first posts on IHD from those times, and my Yelp review, I read about seeing bad industry practices, a result of under staffing and poorly trained staff.  This is not a case of one unit.  Yes, Life Care got caught, but I challenge NY State to enter unannounced to any NYC dialysis unit, they are going to find issues.

My biggest complaint with the news that is being reported?  Where is DaVita in all of this?  Life Care is a DaVita unit, yet Dr. Wasser seems to be the only name mentioned in both the State Press Release and the newspaper articles.  This does not exonerate Dr. Wasser or any of the management of Life Care, but it should also implicate DaVita.

I applaud NY State for taking a stand in cleaning up the Dialysis Industry.  As I have said in prior posts, it is good for the patient.  I am also committed to home hemo now, more than ever.  It was worth the fight to maintain my therapy, even after I was dumped.

Dr. Wasser is a good nephrologist.  I feel that he is being scapegoated in all of this.  There is blame to be had, but it ALL should not be put at his feet.  Dr. Wasser had been my nephrologist for five years prior to my starting dialysis.  I know great nephrologists, and I know bad nephrologists, Dr. Wasser was good and thorough in my medical care.  As far as hiring and managing a Dialysis Unit, well, that isn't what he went to medical school for, and Life Care had issues that are now well documented.  But DaVita is complicit in all of this.  The name tags on the staff had DaVita written on them. The blame needs to be shared.

Please, let Lufkin and now Life Care mean something.  Let those names mean that the industry has something wrong with it, and we need to fix it.  People's lives are at stake.

UPDATE by Bill Peckham
Davitaownslifecare DaVita's involvement with Life Care can be seen on the Medicare website Dialysis Facility Compare listing for Life Care, the corporate name for the dialysis unit is listed as DaVita.  (DFC does not seem to provide a permanent link to search results - this is a screen shot of the listing). http://www.billpeckham.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/18/davitaownslifecare.jpg

More info: http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/09/closure---a-res.html

[flip]

I notice that Davita has pulled Life Care from their web site search. It was there previously.

[Ang]

this  mob  should be  brought  up  on  malpractice  charges  or  something  whatever  you  guys  charge  people  with  for  being  stupid  and  incompetent  and  reckless