DENVER—DaVita Inc. announced July 13 that it has seen a reduction of catheter rates in dialysis patients due to a reduction program the company implemented in 2008.
“The success of our catheter-reduction program is a huge accomplishment for our teammates and physician partners,” said Dr. Allen R. Nissenson, DaVita’s chief medical officer. “Decreasing patients’ chances of infection, thrombosis, hospitalization and death are the driving forces behind this outstanding continuous quality improvement program.”
In 2008, DaVita established CathAway, the company’s seven-step program for reducing the number of hemodialysis patients with catheters. Since the inception of the program, DaVita has witnessed a 30 percent reduction in the number of “Day 90+” patients (i.e., those patients who have been dialyzing at DaVita for 90 days or more) using a catheter for dialysis access and the company is now at an all-time low catheter rate. This has been DaVita’s most significant clinical initiative in the past two years.
Through DaVita’s CathAway program, a multidisciplinary team including nephrologists, surgeons and clinical professionals helps patients transition from catheters to fistulas as the means of dialysis access.
Kidney and hemodialysis experts consider the fistula—a surgically connected passageway between an artery and a vein that can be used as an access point for dialysis treatments—the “gold standard” access choice, and research studies have demonstrated patients with fistulas have the fewest complications, such as infections and clotting, compared to all other hemodialysis access choices.
