LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Vascular Center (LAVC) in Inglewood, Calif., announced it treated its 5,000th patient with necessary vascular access care since opening in June 2007.
Since opening in 2007, the LAVC has helped reduce the number of thrombectomies performed at its clinic, declining from 36 percent in 2007 to 24 percent in 2009. The prevention and reduction of clotted access means fewer patients are missing dialysis treatments and more patients have adequate blood flow through their access for optimal dialysis care. Thrombectomies are expensive procedures, so fewer cases translate into lower costs to Medicare and insurance companies.
As policymakers look for ways to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality, LAVC is achieving this with coordinated care in its kidney community. By providing proactive vascular access care and cutting-edge procedures to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, LAVC creates a better model of patient care in the Los Angeles area.
Last year, the LAVC began offering pain management treatment to patients through the use of spinal cord stimulation, significantly improving the lives of patients who often suffer from chronic pain.
The core of its vascular services include vessel mapping for access placement, thrombectomies and angioplasties of dialysis access for ESRD patients. In addition to its core services, LAVC provides other advanced procedures that improve health and avoid hospitalizations for both ESRD and non-ESRD patients. These procedures include venous ablation and lower extremity angiography (LEA).
As one of the only facilities in the area offering CO2 angiograms of the legs, the LAVC provides a painless diagnostic tool for the treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease, the leading cause of amputations in diabetics and ESRD patients. Since opening, LAVC has performed 250 LEAs helping patients avoid traumatic limb amputations.
