NIAGARA FALLS: Dialysis dedication

By Paul Lane/lanep@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

August 15, 2007 07:55 pm

— Officials gathered at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center on Wednesday to dedicate what will be the county’s largest dialysis center.
The Niagara Renal Center, located in the hospital’s former emergency room, is an 8,437-square-foot facility that will house 17 dialysis stations. Opening later this month, the center will be able to care for 102 patients a week.
Dialysis is a procedure in which wastes are removed from and chemicals are added to a person’s blood. The procedure is necessary for people who have developed end-stage kidney failure. About 288,000 (0.11 percent) of U.S. citizens are in need of dialysis, according to the U.S. Renal Data System.
Facilities such as this are vital because of the scarcity of dialysis stations in the area, Memorial President and CEO Joseph A. Ruffolo said.
“In a few short weeks, scores of patients from across the greater Niagara region who are now on waiting lists — or who would have had to leave our area — will be able to receive life-saving, life-sustaining kidney dialysis right in this room,” he said during the ceremony held in the center.
Each dialysis station will feature a 15-inch television connected to an in-house entertainment center. Patients will have drive-up access to the facility via the former emergency room doors. The center will create 10 new, full-time jobs.
The facility is co-owned by Memorial, Dr. Sujatha Addagatla and Apollo Health Care LLC, which runs dialysis centers across the region and state. Addagatla will also serve as medical director of the center.
Dialysis is a three-times-weekly, four-hours-per-visit procedure that can create an inconvenience for patients and their families, according to Michael Sloma, president and CEO of Apollo Health Care — especially for those people who have to travel from Niagara County to Buffalo for treatment. Some of the facilities his company runs have had to create extensive waiting lists, something he’d like to eliminate.
“There is an incredible need for additional situations in Western New York, and Niagara County in particular,” he said. “Now we will routinely be able to say yes, we can help you out.”

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