A third dialysis clinic will open in Topeka later this year to accommodate a growing need for treatment of advanced kidney disease.

DaVita, which operates dialysis centers nationwide, will open a new clinic at 3711 S.W. Wanamaker. Karen Steinlage, group administrator for the DaVita facilities in Kansas, said the first patient can start treatment soon, after a last contract is signed. Subsequent patients will start after the state inspects and certifies the facility, she said.

At capacity, 24 people will be able to get their treatment in each of three shifts, Monday through Saturday. Since most patients need dialysis three times per week, they expect to treat about 144 people each week, Steinlage said.

DaVita runs Topeka Dialysis at St. Francis Health, and Fresenius Medical Care has a dialysis clinic at 3931 S.W. Gage Center and home treatment options. The new location will be more convenient for some patients, Steinlage said, and will provide more space for the growing number of people who need dialysis. She estimated the patient population has grown by 10 percent in the past decade.

“That facility (at St. Francis) is very full,” she said. “We need to grow somewhere.”

Diabetes and hypertension that weren’t properly managed are two of the major causes of kidney failure, and both have increased in recent years as obesity rates have gone up. Keelyn Ericson, a nephrologist who works with the facility, said his practice increased from three to six kidney specialists in 10 years.

“In the entire nation, there are more dialysis units each year,” he said.

Dialysis is one of few options for people who have end-stage renal failure, meaning they lost at least 85 percent of their kidney function, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Transplants also are an option, but some people have health problems that prevent them from undergoing the surgery, and there are more people waiting for an organ than available kidneys.

The process involves removing a small amount of a person’s blood at a time through a surgically created opening in his or her arm, cleaning it using osmosis with other fluids in a series of small tubes and returning it to the body. Most patients have to sit for three or four hours, and all of their blood cycles out of their bodies about eight times, Steinlage said. The waste products are essentially the same as urine, which failing kidneys can’t remove from the body, and can be disposed of through the regular sewage system, she said.

Each person is assigned his or her own machine. DaVita also can coordinate home dialysis or peritoneal dialysis, which involves a person putting the fluid into his or her abdomen and then draining it instead of using a machine, said Erin Hinrichsen, administrator of the new facility. The St. Francis location has evening hours, and they are looking into a night shift, she said.

DaVita also offers classes on managing kidney failure and preventing kidney disease, Hinrichsen said.

“So many people come to our classes and say, ‘If I just knew to watch my blood sugar, I wouldn’t be here,’” she said.

For more information about the new facility, call (785) 234-2277. To learn more about kidney health, visit Kidney.org or KidneySmart.org.

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Linda Ivany, regional manager for dialysis for Eastern Health, was very pleased with the turnout for the first annual Dialysis Dash. She said the goal is to raise the money needed to purchase a total of 55 chairs for facilities in St. John’s, Carbonear, Burin, Clarenville and Bonavista, which take care of about 350 dialysis patients.

“There’s always a real challenge to get a comfortable chair. Our chairs are really old — they’re probably eight or nine years old so the health foundation had agreed to help us fundraise to buy new chairs,” she said.

The new chairs — a few have been purchased already — can be customized with a remote to help patients get comfortable during their long dialysis treatments. 

“Our older chairs, the nurses would have to come over and adjust the chair for the patient. So these are really good from an occupational health view for our staff, but also gives the patient the autonomy to be able to adjust the chair however they’d like,” Ivany said.

Conception Bay South resident Vincent Andrews, who has been receiving dialysis treatment for a little more than two years, has had a test run in the new chairs, and said being able to move independently is a game changer.

“Each time you get uncomfortable you can change your body position, so that’s huge for us. It changes the whole experience for us,” he said.

Andrews participated in the event's 5K race, and raised more money than any other participant. He said he figures being the poster boy for the event — he was featured in a promotional video for it — gave him a leg up in fundraising, and he appreciates the hard work the other participants put in. The turnout was a little overwhelming for him.

“I’m not easily overwhelmed but,” he said, pausing. “Yeah, it meant a lot.”

Each chair costs upwards of $6,000, which means Saturday’s event will cover the cost of at least four.

“As of right now, our initial tallies are showing over $26,000, but we have more donations coming in and a lot of people saying they’ve got more to bring in Monday,” said Jackie O’Brien, communications and stewardship manager for the Health Care Foundation.

For more, see Monday’s Telegram.

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