Fresenius Medical Care North America Achieves Record Growth in Home Dialysis

WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation's leading provider of kidney care products and services, announces record growth in home dialysis in the six months since its merger with NxStage Medical Inc. The growth rate for home dialysis is now eight times the rate of in-center dialysis*, and the company has surpassed 25,000 patients currently receiving treatment at home. 

"As the industry leader in dialysis products and services, we are committed to actively shaping the future of patient care to provide the best quality of life for people living with kidney failure," said Bill Valle, Chief Executive Officer of Fresenius Medical Care North America. "We want to ensure home dialysis is offered as the best option if transplant is not feasible, and are focused on giving life back to this patient population."

A recent presidential executive order highlighted the benefits of home dialysis, with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) encouraging the shift to home therapies through new policy development. In 2019 alone, Fresenius Medical Care North America has achieved these additional home dialysis initiatives and milestones:

• Educated 30,000 patients with CKD or ESRD about home dialysis with the help of 180 Kidney Care Advocates.
• Provided more than 40,000 learning sessions to dialysis staff and nephrologists in live workshops and online courses through the Advanced Renal Education Program.
• Launched a new cloud platform that improves remote patient monitoring and retrieval of patient home treatment records.
• More than doubled the number of transitional care units that help support patients in-center as they learn and gain confidence with home therapies.
• Made a major investment in BioIntelliSense, a company developing a medical grade data services platform for continuous health monitoring with predictive analytics.
• Invested in new significant manufacturing and distribution capacity in Knoxville, Tenn. to accommodate increased production of peritoneal dialysis solution.

Many experts agree that home dialysis — either peritoneal or hemodialysis — is the best option aside from transplant for treating kidney failure. Choosing home dialysis can mean fewer food restrictions, greater scheduling flexibility, less frequent transportation challenges, and better outcomes. 

"Research shows that home dialysis often leads to better outcomes for patients," said Dr. Robert Kossmann, Chief Medical Officer for FMCNA. "We are driven to make the choice of home therapies even easier through innovation, research, technology, investment, and personalized patient care. It's incredibly exciting to see the increasing support for home therapy among nephrologists and the government."

The company continues to offer meaningful, educational information to the public through its Fresenius Kidney Care patient-facing website and its Fresenius Medical Care North America website and newsroom.

*Based on growth rates for the six month period from March 2019 through August 2019.

About Fresenius Medical Care North America
Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA) is the premier healthcare company focused on providing the highest quality care to people with renal and other chronic conditions. Through its industry-leading network of dialysis facilities, outpatient cardiac and vascular labs and urgent care centers, Fresenius Medical Care North America provides coordinated healthcare services at pivotal care points for hundreds of thousands of chronically ill customers throughout the continent. As the world's largest fully integrated renal company, it offers specialty pharmacy and laboratory services, and manufactures and distributes the most comprehensive line of dialysis equipment, disposable products and renal pharmaceuticals. For more information, visit the FMCNA website at https://fmcna.com.

Media Contact:
Fresenius Medical Care North America
Brad Puffer
Corporate Communications
[email protected]
(781) 699-3331

SOURCE Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc.