DaVita Executives Spend the Day Giving Life in Dialysis Centers

DENVER— DaVita announced that all of its executives—those at the vice president level and higher—are spending Friday, January 18, in the company’s dialysis centers, serving patients and supporting fellow teammates.

“'Serving in Center' is designed to be a day for our leadership to listen, learn and connect with our front line, caregiving teammates,” said Steve Priest, DaVita’s chief wisdom officer. “It’s a time for us to spend time working side-by-side with our teammates so that we can stay connected.”

More than 200 DaVita executives, including company Chairman and CEO Kent Thiry, are serving in clinics from Washington to Florida and New York to California. While they are not providing direct patient care, all other duties are on the table. Cleaning, organizing, stocking supplies and visiting with patients are common clinic duties.

While some might believe that vice presidents at a Fortune 500 company would find mopping a clinic floor beneath them, Deputy General Counsel Martha Ha says the opposite is true.

“It’s so easy to get caught up in all of the meetings, phone calls, emails and other work day-to-day that you forget what we do at DaVita—we give life,” Ha said. “I have no doubt that helping my teammates by cleaning, visiting with a patient, or doing anything else in the clinic will be the most rewarding thing I’ve done all week.”

DaVita requires all executives to participate in “Reality 101,” which involves taking a one-day course on dialysis and serving one to three days in a support role in a clinic, within their first year at the company. “Serving in Center” offers a refresher course for most DaVita executives.