The "lifeline" of patients on hemodialysis is their vascular access. Typically surgically placed in the patient's arm, this vascular access provides the ability to receive life-sustaining dialysis treatments. Since hemodialysis requires repeated access to the patient's circulation in order to filter and cleanse the blood, a well-functioning and well-maintained access is vitally important to the patient's health.

Denver Nephrology is working with

 to provide dedicated outpatient services to achieve this goal.

We are proud to be accredited by the Joint Commission. This accreditation is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization's commitment to meeting high healthcare performance standards.

For more information about The Joint Commission, please visit: www.jointcommission.org.

The name of our center is:

Denver Nephrology's  Access Center is conveniently located in Denver, near the Wings Museum in Lowry, at 130 Rampart Way, Suite 300A. Phone 303-343-4244, Fax 303-343-7563

A Growing Problem

• The U.S. ESRD patient population continues to grow 5-6% percent annually.¹
• Over 70,000 initial access placements are performed each year.¹
• ESRD patients require periodic access interventions.²
• Vascular access represents 15-25 percent of aggregate per-patient ESRD medical costs.¹
• Inpatient vascular access care is more than four times as expensive as outpatient care.¹

¹ U.S. Renal Data System, USRDS 2001 Annual Data Report
² RMS Lifeline Managed Centers

FRAGMENTED CARE DELIVERY

• Patient care is poorly coordinated.
• Access care is usually delivered in facilities not specialized in ESRD patient access care.
• Patients get short-term solutions at the expense of long-term benefits.
• Patient access problems often result in missed dialysis treatments and increased hospitalizations.

Our goal is to provide an outpatient center that is 100% dedicated to the maintenance of dialysis patients' vascular accesses. As nephrologists caring for patients on dialysis who encounter problems that potentially threaten their vascular accesses, we are in an ideal position to recognize problems before they threaten the patency of the access, therefore prompting evaluation and treatment of the access in a timely manner that helps to prevent costly and time-consuming hospitalizations and missed dialysis treatments.