Renal Dialysis Center Opening at BMC's North Adams Campus
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Ed Lewis of Williamstown has been driving 35 minutes each way, three times a week to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield for four years.
There's no days off, no sick time, no staying home because of treacherous weather. He had a 3 1/2-hour evening appointment he had to make, missing time with his wife, children and grandchildren.
That's because Lewis is taking life-saving dialysis treatment as he waits for a kidney transplant.
"It took me 35 minutes. I timed this, it took me 9 minutes," he smiled on Wednesday at the new North County Dialysis Center. It also means no night-time driving. "Now I have a home life."
A new $2.2 million renal dialysis center opens on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. to serve more than 30 area patients, saving them the long drive to Pittsfield for their care.
This first such center in North County is located in the Doctor's Building on the North Adams Campus of Berkshire Medical Center, in space formerly occupied by Northern Berkshire VNA & Hospice. The 6,000-square-foot clinic open six days a week from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
"It's more than just convenient, it's huge for them because when they have to travel a distance like to Pittsfield, like they have been doing for years, it's a lot on them," said Dr. David Henner, medical director of BMC's Kidney Disease & Hypertension Center.
"Most patients require three times a week of this, for four hours on average, so it's about 12 hours a week they spend here," Henner said. The dialysis machine is "doing the work that normally would be done over 24 hours, seven days a week.
"We're replacing 12 hours of time with what would normally take 168 hours."
The dialysis center is the latest medical service to open on the former North Adams Regional Hospital campus since its acquisition by BMC. The center had been under consideration for some time and the board of directors approved its construction last year, along with a planned relocation of the Pittsfield center. with fewer chairs, to the former hematology/
The new nine-chair center is staffed by seven specialized renal providers, a nurse educator, dietitian and social worker. Providers at the North Adams center will include Henner and Drs. Steven Lamontagne and Stephen Nelson, and nurse practitioner Sheila Silsby. The center's clinical manager is Kathleen Bianchi, a registered nurse.
All told, the cost for the two new centers in North and Central County was about $6 million, what David Phelps, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems, described as a commitment by the board to the communities.
"If you value an investment by what it means for the patients, it's a good investment. If you value it from a financial investment, very few people would make it," he said.
Dialysis is not a high reimbursement service, he said, but a break-even at best with a tendency toward large, centralized for-profit locations to increase efficiencies and volume.
"This is a community investment ... the returns on it are the returns to the patients," Phelps said. "At a time when there's tremendous competition for health-care dollars, [the board] understood that the return for us is what we would do for patients ... they deserve a lot of credit."
Jennifer Stover, a registered nurse and clinical manager, said family and patients had attended the open house on Sunday and been thrilled with the location and setup.
Henner pointed to BMC's dialysis centers having a higher nurse/patient ratio, a focus on clinical outcomes and an investment in an "ultrapure" water system.
"It really is a form of life support and a lot of people don't realize that," he said. "It's the only organ you can replace with the machine on an outpatient basis."
The center does not expect a big bump in patients. The 30 number has been fairly consistent recently but there are patients who may have been going to Southern Vermont Medical Center in Vermont or to Greenfield who may find the North Adams location more convenient.
"What's happening is patients are surviving longer because technology is getting better, we're taking really good care of these patients, so as they live longer, there is some growth," Henner said.
It's taking patients longer to get the point where they need dialysis and, once on, they are surviving longer using the treatment. One patient has been on dialysis for 30 years, the doctor said, and the region's survival rates are 25 to 50 percent better than the national rate.
The $13,500 dialysis machines are located next to each chair. They use a mix of acids, bicarbonate and ultrapurified water specific to each patient to clean waste products from the blood, taking over the role of the kidneys. They also remove extra fluids.
"It has to be high-quality water. It can't be just tap water. We use ultrapure to make sure because it's basically exchanging with the patients' blood so it has to be clean," Henner said.
The center has an on-staff water technician and a complex water purification system that includes one last final filter on the machine itself.
For Lewis, and fellow patient Charles Fuqua, professor emeritus of classics at Williams College who's been on dialysis for eight years, it's the staff and care that they receive that's made an impression.
"The quality of the staff are simply outstanding," said Fuqua, who was also happy to not have to wait for elevators at the ground-floor clinic. "I've seen them here, and the people I've seen at BMC are certainly above."
"These people here are incredible. The staff is very personal, they know everything," Lewis said. "You do feel safe coming here, it's life changing."
Tags: BMC North, dialysis, health clinic, opening,
