DaVita Commends Kidney Care Partners for Launch of PEA...( Programs Designed to Address High Ris...),Health

Programs Designed to Address High Risks for New Dialysis Patients Making a Difference in Cutting Patient Mortality Rates

DENVER, June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA), a leading provider of kidney care services for those diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD), today commended Kidney Care Partners for launching the Performance Excellence and Accountability in Kidney Care (PEAK) campaign. Kidney Care Partners - a coalition of patient advocates, dialysis professionals, care providers and manufacturers working together to improve quality of care for individuals with CKD - designed the project to significantly reduce the high mortality rate for patients in their first year of dialysis.

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Due to complexities involved in starting dialysis - including dietary changes, vascular access management and adjusting to a regular treatment schedule, among many other factors - patients are at their most susceptible to complications during their initial transition to dialysis. PEAK is a quality improvement campaign pledging to extend, even save, as many as 10,000 lives and reduce mortality among first-year dialysis patients by 20 percent by the end of 2012.

"The kidney care community has achieved wonderful and demonstrable quality improvements in the last 10 years, and PEAK is now being launched to help us achieve the same in the next 10 years," said Kent Thiry, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DaVita(R). "When dialysis patients are at their most vulnerable, PEAK will work with leading researchers and experts to provide recommendations on care and education necessary to help make a difference in the lives of countless patients and their fam
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