Study finds problems in dialysis clinics

DENVER, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A study of kidney dialysis clinics in the United States finds that unsanitary conditions and infections are common.

ProPublica, an online non-profit news agency, said it examined inspection reports for thousands of clinics, and interviewed patients, doctors and public officials.

"We're offering our patients a therapy we wouldn't accept for ourselves," Tom Parker III, a Dallas nephrologist, said.

Kidney dialysis became common in the United States as a result of a 1972 law that mandated Medicare coverage for almost all patients who depended on the procedure. But Medicare favored large companies that could cut costs and almost two-thirds of U.S. dialysis clinics are now owned by one of two companies, Fresenius Medical Care North America, a subsidiary of a German medical supply company, and DaVita Inc. in Denver.

As a result, ProPublica said, the country spends $20 billion a year providing dialysis for about 400,000 people and has the world's highest death rate among dialysis patients.

While clinics are supposed to be inspected every three years, records showed some had gone for more than five years without a thorough look, ProPublica said. Almost none have doctors on the premises and some do not even have a registered nurse.