BY DR. JEFF GIULLIAN | CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER FOR DAVITA KIDNEY CARE

As a health care provider, DaVita’s highest priority­­ is the well-being of our patients. This is why we take seriously any situation that threatens our ability to keep patients safe.

As you may know, the dialysis community is currently facing a shortage of certain dialysis supplies. While this issue originated with a single supplier, its ripple effects reach the entire dialysis community.

DaVita is working with all suppliers and coordinating with the FDA to lessen the impact. As always, we are collaborating across our community—and with our partner nephrologists—to tackle this problem and help keep our patients informed and well cared for.

I am grateful for the incredible work of our care teams, who have gone to great lengths to help ensure our patients continue to receive the care they need in this challenging environment. DaVita teammates (employees) have adapted quickly to conserve supplies. And when one of our suppliers couldn’t make its deliveries, our care teams logged hundreds of miles to pick up these resources and deliver them directly to the centers and patients who needed them.

Through this hard work and dedication, we have maintained our focus on high-quality patient care.  To date, no patient’s treatment time, schedule or location has been altered due to disruptions in the supply chain.

Helping ensure our patients have uninterrupted access to safe, high-quality care is our top priority. While situations like this aren’t easy, we prepare for uncertainties and work closely with others in the kidney community to keep all patients safe and healthy.

I’m hopeful this disruption will be short-lived. In the meantime, we will continue collaborating with our partner physicians to help ensure every patient receives the life-sustaining care they need.

If you are a dialysis patient with questions about your care, please reach out to your nephrologist for guidance.