DaVita's Clinical Team Holds Week-Long Clinical Summit

DENVER—Dialysis provider DaVita Inc. has kicked off a week-long conference hosted by DaVita's Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO)  titled National Quality Week 2009.

DaVita clinicians, dietitians, physician council members, members of OCMO and other practitioners began gathering July 27 to review DaVita's current clinical programs and plan new initiatives to improve patients' clinical outcomes for 2010 and beyond.

DaVita said the week-long annual event will allow it to re-prioritize current projects according to clinical-team feedback, and updates from the medical staff. This mid-year meeting generates program adjustments aimed at continually improving patient outcomes, according to DaVita.

"National Quality Week will allow our team to focus on our innovative clinical initiatives and processes in a way that will facilitate improvement in programs on behalf of patient outcomes," said Allen R. Nissenson, MD, chief medical officer for DaVita.

Each meeting during National Quality Week will focus on programs such as IMPACT (Incident Management of Patients, Actions Centered on Treatment), CathAway (a comprehensive catheter reduction initiative), Infection Control, Integration of Quality Systems, and Patient Safety.