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Medical Service good or bad? |
Travel Info Can anyone tell me what West Suburban Dialysis Centre is like. For example the staff and the health service offered there and is the complex big and where is it located exactly. Travel Tips This seems to be their web site http://www.wshmc.org/index.html... It doesn鈥檛 give much information but it does give directions here http://www.wshmc.org/gen_info/directions... the address is 3 Erie Court in Oak Park. I鈥檝e dialyzed in Evanston and Highland park but not out there so I can鈥檛 give you first hand information Medical Information. But I can tell you my impression from what I can see on the internet. There are a couple 鈥渞ed flags鈥?and a couple 鈥済reen flags鈥? First - and remember names can change and the internet (my source of information) is sometimes wrong <shock> - it looks like this unit was sold to the huge dialysis provider Fresenius Medical Care in 2002 and then it looks like it was spun off to Resurrection Health Care (that鈥榮 their link above) which self reports to be a multi-faceted, not-for-profit health care organization dedicated to charitable, religious, scientific, and educational purposes. I think this is what happened but again you should be sure to ask who owns the unit and if it is the small nonprofit that this appears to be (a green flag) then ask about their governance. A small well run not-for-profit could indicate a very good source of dialysis but not always. The sale from FMC to Resurrection was probably compelled by anti-trust rules when FMC merged with another big dialysis provider RCG in the last year. This would explain why the next source indicates it is still a FMC unit (Dialysis Facility Compare is always a year or so behind). To me seeing a unit change hands twice in four years is a red flag but then again it could have been for the best. I鈥檇 ask how much employee turnover the unit experiences; be sure to ask the people you talk to or especially the ones who care for you how many years of tenure at their current job they report having. If everyone has been there 鈥渇orever鈥?green flag, if everyone is 鈥渘ew鈥?red flag. The next source of information is Medicare鈥檚 Dialysis Facility Compare web site here: http://www.medicare.gov/dialysis/include... when I enter in the zip code of the West Suburban Dialysis Center and ask for all units within 10 miles they report that there are 49 dialysis facilities available within 10 miles of ZIP Code 60302. That means there are a lot of options and I say options are always good and competition can encourage good care so green flag. I selected the six units that were within three miles and compared them (this website is cumbersome, remember to go to the bottom of the page to find the 鈥渘ext鈥?button). I saw a couple things that I see as red flags - no dialysis shifts starting after 5PM. This tells me they are not accommodating people who are working. Are their patients too sick to work? They report having between 46 and 53 stations (depending on which source you believe). That is a large unit, I鈥檇 be more comfortable in a 12 or 18 station unit. However maybe the West Suburban Dialysis center is really 3 units in one building caring for people with different care needs, or designed to feel like a smaller unit but there are large ward style units out there so if you haven鈥檛 been you should make sure to visit. All the reported medical 鈥渕easures鈥?on the DFC website are average but I put little stock in averages - after all averages are made of extremes and on the DFC website "average" means the unit is in the middle 90% (a big group) but those numbers are a green-ish flag. However, one item dose worry me - they are a huge unit implying about two hundred and fifty people on dialysis yet they do not offer a home hemodialysis or even a home Peritoneal Dialysis option. More frequent dialysis, especially daily nocturnal hemodialysis has been demonstrated to be the healthiest form of renal replacement, rivaling a kidney transplant in medical outcomes. Daily nocturnal is only practicable at Home so I鈥檇 ask why are they not offering the healthiest dialysis option. They may offer Home Dialysis under a different Medicare provider number in the same neighborhood the Oak Park Dialysis Unit offers both form of home treatment and may be part of the system, and that DFC site is a year or more behind but if there is no home hemo option that is red flag.i think Carla got lost in the converse.. |
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