***USA Today article - Kidney Dialysis***
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Dialysis treatment in USA: High costs, high death rates
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY
Deb Lustman was late getting to work a few days every week, and often felt she wasn't thinking as clearly as she once did.
The reason: Lustman, 50, was spending four hours a day, three days a week, undergoing kidney dialysis at a dialysis center, where a machine filtered toxins and fluids from her blood. Normally, that's the job of the kidneys, but for reasons doctors have never figured out, hers had failed.
Steve Lustman helps his wife, Deb, as she inserts a needle into her arm to start dialysis at home in Magnolia, N.J. Only 8% of dialysis patients in the USA treat themselves at home.
Nine months into her treatment, as soon as her doctor raised the possibility of home dialysis, Lustman decided to switch. So, in July 2008, after she and her husband learned the ins-and-outs from a nurse, she began dialyzing five evenings a week at her Magnolia, N.J., home, with her two Maltese, Sophie and Jake, often lounging next to her. Now Lustman, an optician, dialyzes on her own schedule, not the center's, and she's not late for work anymore. And, she says, "I'm healthier."
***Pump Speeds and Mortality***
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Do We Need to Abandon High Ultrafiltration Rates in America?
By Peter Laird, MD
Dialysis practices around the world differ significantly from the practice patterns observed in America and many have long believed this is in part the explanation for our higher dialysis mortality.
I recently spoke with a manager of a dialysis unit and his experience with horrified Japanese patients who couldn't believe the blood flow rates used in America compared to Japan. Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand have long recognized the survival benefits of longer, slower and gentler dialysis compared to our American style violent sessions.
***Davita proves the need for the Stark Law***
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Rivals wary of dialysis giant DaVita's aggressive business style
By Jennifer Brown
The Denver Post
Posted: 07/14/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 07/14/2009 08:40:38 AM MDT
News that Fortune 500 company DaVita Dialysis is moving its headquarters to Denver socked its competitors like a punch in the gut. To its rivals, the kidney-care giant is a bully armed with high-powered attorneys who use lawsuits as tools to intimidate.
DaVita executives counter that they are simply strong competitors — they act as aggressors only when doctors or nurses or other dialysis companies break promises and double-cross them.
Either way, a string of DaVita-filed lawsuits around the country — with two major battles boiling in Denver and Colorado Springs — shed light on the ruthless competition over dialysis patients in an industry that costs Medicare alone more than $8 billion per year. For years, DaVita's competition in Colorado's two largest cities was almost nonexistent.
Failing safety standards at dialysis centers put Georgians at risk
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Credit: National Institutes of Health
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments by the new owners of the Hapeville and Stone Mountain clinics.
At Hapeville Dialysis Center, patient deaths surged more than six times above the national average in 2018, yet administrators failed to investigate why, according to state inspection reports.
In Stone Mountain, clinical staff at Veritas Dialysis mishandled potentially infectious waste and used dialysis machines that had broken parts for months.
And at Gwinnett Dialysis Center in Lawrenceville, a nurse in 2020 stored blood specimens inside a refrigerator that stored patient medications.
These centers for the treatment of end-stage kidney disease are among the 45% of Georgia dialysis centers that have fallen so short on patient safety, care and other standards that regulators decided to dock their pay this year.
Read more: Failing safety standards at dialysis centers put Georgians at risk
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