Fresenius Medical Care’s Patient Engagement May Have Saved Lives During Superstorm Sandy
July 02 2015 - 10:05AM
Business Wire
New HHS Study Shows Pre Storm Planning and Patient Care Lowered
Chances of Hospitalization and Death
Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), a division of
Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE: FMS) and North America’s largest
provider of kidney care, hospitalist services and renal products,
today hailed a new study by the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) this week showing that dialysis patients who
received treatments immediately before Super Storm Sandy
experienced a much better survival rate and less frequent visits to
the hospital. FMCNA provided pre-storm, weekend care to a wide
section of the area surveyed by the study, indicating that the
company’s efforts made an appreciable difference in patients’
lives.
The HHS study – based on 13,836 patients who received dialysis
across the State of New Jersey and New York City – found that
receiving early dialysis reduced the chances of needing emergency
room care or hospitalization by 20 percent and 21 percent,
respectively. Most importantly, patients who received early
treatment showed a 28 percent lower chance of death 30 days after
the storm. “As a company, we believe it’s our responsibility to do
whatever it takes to get patients the care they need to live,
whatever the circumstances, “ said Bill Numbers, Fresenius Medical
Care’s Sr. Vice President Operations Shared Services and Incident
Commander. “Preparing for and responding to disasters and making
sure that patients have access to care is a key part of our
business, and we are proud that our work is making a
difference.”
The Fresenius Medical Care Disaster Response Team worked closely
during the run up to Sandy with local governments and community
organizations, such as the Kidney Community Emergency Response
(KCER) Coalition, to ensure patients received treatments before the
storm hit. It was able to provide the vast majority of its patients
this vital care by taking several actions:
- Opened many of its clinics for extended
hours late into Saturday night and throughout the day on Sunday
before the storm reached the metro area.
- Began alerting patients in person and
on the phone a week before the storm to set up disaster contingency
plans.
- Provided extra treatment shifts for
patients whose normal care schedule would likely be disrupted by
the superstorm.
- Diverted patients from some clinics to
others to ensure everyone could reach a working clinic after the
hurricane.
While storms and other natural disasters can be dangerous and
even life-threatening for entire communities, they pose an
especially serious health threat to renal patients who need
hemodialysis treatment every several days to clean waste products
from their blood. FMCNA is an industry leader in health care
disaster preparedness and response, running incident command teams
at the national and local levels in order to coordinate effective
operations during hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, etc. In fact,
FMCNA has won the USA Council of the International Association of
Emergency Managers (IAEM) Business & Industry Preparedness
Award in recognition of its efforts.
For more information about FMNCA’s disaster response program,
please visit our website at
http://www.ultracare-dialysis.com/FreseniusMedicalServices/DisasterResponse.aspx.
To speak to the leaders of our disaster response team, including
people who helped during the Hurricane Sandy response, please
contact FMCNA media relations.
About Fresenius Medical Care North America
Fresenius Medical Care North America is the premier health care
company focused on delivering the highest quality care to people
with renal and other chronic conditions. Through its
industry-leading network of dialysis facilities, outpatient cardiac
and vascular labs and urgent care centers, as well as the country’s
largest practice of hospitalist and post-acute providers, Fresenius
Medical Care provides coordinated health care services at pivotal
care points for hundreds of thousands of chronically ill customers
throughout the continent. As the world’s only vertically integrated
renal company, it offers specialty pharmacy and laboratory
services, and manufactures and distributes the most comprehensive
line of dialysis equipment, disposable products and renal
pharmaceuticals. For more information, visit the FMCNA website
at www.freseniusmedicalcare.us.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150702005493/en/
Fresenius Medical CareJon Stone, 781-699-9704(C)
781-392-4680Jonathan.d.stone@fmc-na.com
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