CLINICAL OUTCOMES

Our goal is simple...to provide consistent quality clinical care to our patients from the most caring and qualified doctors, nurses, patient care technicians, social workers and dieticians. DCA has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to quality renal care through our Continuous Quality Improvement initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a leadership position as a quality provider in the dialysis industry. We often set our goals higher than the national average standards because we know we can strive a little harder to achieve even better results for our patients. Below are some of the clinical indicators we measure and compare against the national standards.

Kt/V is a formula that measures the amount of dialysis delivered to the patient, based on the removal of urea, an end product of protein metabolism. Kt/V provides a means to determine an individual dialysis prescription and to monitor the effectiveness or adequacy of the dialysis treatment as delivered to the patient. It is critical to strive to achieve a Kt/V level of greater than 1.2 for as many patients as possible. The 2007 ESRD CPM Outcome Comparison Tool national average, the most recent data available, indicated 91% of dialysis patients had a Kt/V level greater than 1.2, while 95% of our patients had a Kt/V level greater than 1.2, for 2007.

*Source: 2007 ESRD CPM Outcome Comparison Tool

Vascular access is the 'lifeline' for hemodialysis patients. "Fistulas are the 'gold standard' for establishing access to a patient's circulatory system in order to provide life-sustaining dialysis", said Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. The 2007 Fistula First national average indicated 46.8% of patients were dialyzed with an AV fistula, while 53% of DCA patients were dialyzed with a fistula during 2007.

*Source: 2007 Fistula First National Average