Dialysis Access Center Provides Quicker Treatment
BOARDMAN, Ohio – An outpatient dialysis access center reopened in a new location, helping patients get the help they need quicker.
Dialysis Access Center, an outpatient ambulatory surgery center that’s part of The Kidney Group, opened at 8390 Tod Ave. a few weeks ago and hosted an open house Friday.
“We have at least 2,000 people on dialysis in this town,” said Dr. Hasit Pandya, one of two interventional nephrologists who practice at the center.
Dr. Sherif Soliman is the other.
Dialysis patients from Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties in Ohio and Lawrence and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania come to the center when they have an issue with their access, the place to reach the blood for hemodialysis, Pandya said.
“We take care of the dialysis access,” he said.
The center addresses issues with patients’ access whether it be an arteriovenous, or AV, fistula, a graft or a catheter.
“We take care of it that same day, and they can go back on dialysis,” Pandya said.
Without the center, those patients would have to go to the emergency room and they’d have to be scheduled to see a surgeon, meaning a hospital stay. Sometimes, that could mean their dialysis treatment would be delayed.
“That’s the beauty of what we do here,” said Nicole Antalocy, center administrator. “We can provide same-day service, and they can go right back to dialysis if need be, the same day.”
The closest outpatient centers that provide dialysis access treatment are in Cranberry, Pa., and outside of Cleveland.
The center had operated for 17 years in another building near Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital but had to move when a new owner bought the building about nine months ago. It reopened in the new space, also close to the hospital.
It’s also a central location for patients, most of whom are elderly.
“The service it fulfills is to allow a dialysis patient an easy way to have their accesses for dialysis maintained and to allow them easier access and easier feasibility to be on dialysis,” said Dr. Kathleen S. Padgitt, vice president of The Kidney Group.
Accesses are dependent on the way blood flows through them, and because the grafts and catheters are foreign bodies, they have a tendency to clot, Padgitt explained. And over time, AV fistulas tend to get blocked or provide reduced blood flow.
“When that happens, you can’t actually maintain adequate dialysis,” she said.
The cost difference between a hospital visit for access maintenance compared with treatment provided at the Dialysis Access Center is substantial.
“It makes Medicare happy because probably 85 to 90, 95% of the people we treat have Medicare or Medicaid,” Padgitt said.
The center also saves patients time compared with a hospital visit.
The center is accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Healthcare Inc. The facility anticipates providing more than 150 procedures per month.
In addition to the new center, The Kidney Group operates five locations in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys: 1340 Belmont Ave., Youngstown; 311 Niles-Cortland Road, Warren; 815 Southwestern Run, Boardman; 2151 Shenango Valley Freeway, Hermitage, Pa.; and 101 Nesbit Road, New Castle, Pa.
Ten board-certified physicians at The Kidney Group treat patients suffering from nephrology and hypertension.
Besides Padgitt, Pandya and Soliman, the other physicians at The Kidney Group are Dr. Nathaniel S. Doe, president; Dr. Anup S. Bains and Michael C. Koprucki, vice presidents; Dr. Andrea Shaer, secretary; Dr. Christopher A. Enoch, treasurer; and Dr. Mario Leone and Dr. Leonidas G.Vassilaros.
The Dialysis Access Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 330 629 2855.
Pictured at top: Dr. Hasit Pandya and Nicole Antalocy, administrator, stand in the pre/post-op room at the Dialysis Access Center.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
