Dialysis sites in the suburbs

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Recently not one, but two brand new dialysis sites have been built within a mile of my middle class suburban home.

I have never seen any before out in the burbs. I never see anyone actually using them though.

Is the T2DM epidemic driving this? Are they anticipating tons of middle class baby boomers needing dialysis?

What are your thoughts?

[westieluv]

The need for dialysis is increasing all the time, largely because of the American diet and lifestyle, since DM and hypertension are the two leading causes of chronic renal failure. I work for Fresenius in a good-sized city (600,000 people in the metro area), and all of our clinics here are bursting at the seams with three full shifts every day except for Sunday, and we still have to turn patients away for lack of space and/or staff. As in your area, new locations are being built in the suburbs.

It seems as if the need for dialysis clinics is only going to increase as the Baby Boomers age. As far as why the clinics in your area don't appear to have any patients, I'm pretty sure that there is a system in place when a new clinic is built that you have to start with just one or two patients with traditional insurance and then work your way up to a full house with Medicare/Medicaid patients, I'm not sure if this is a federal government mandate or a state mandate, but that's how it works where I live, even if it's one of the "Big Two", Fresenius or Davita. That's why we have a beautiful brand new clinic in a suburb that only has one patient for the time being. Eventually, they will all be full too. Companies like FMC and Davita are kind of like McDonald's; they do extensive research to see where the need is and build accordingly. They aren't in this to lose money or close down clinics.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I am in a rural area and there are approx 20 dialysis units in the surrounding area but it is a large rural area.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

This is a suburb of Fort Worth. There parking lots still seem to be empty a year later. We have a "young families" population so I guess that is why I am surprised to see them.

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

I am sure we will see his more and more all the time. There will be a dialysis tsunami very soon, not only because of the aging baby boomers, but also because their kids grew up eating fast food. The generation after that will be even worse because they have taken away phys Ed and recess in schools. One day a few weeks ago I had five (acute) patients in one day, and all of them were younger than my kids. All of them had hypertension and/or type 2 diabetes. It's already happening.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Wow. That is scary.