Is anyone else having issues with DaVita?
Hi. My mother has been on At Home PD for about a year and a half. Her nephrologist is affiliated with DaVita so that's how we ended up here. During this time, they never really had handle on her F&E balance and her adequacy has been declining. She was dehydrated twice, hospitalized once (although it should have been more; she refused) and has never been really "stable" while in the care of DaVita. I'm going to try to break it down to a sort of time line for ease of reading and so that I don't leave anything out. Here we go:
My 1st "heads up", so to speak, happened a few months into treatment. I was not impressed at all with her first few adequacy results and her labs were consistently out of whack. For some reason, we needed blood drawn from an outside lab. Her results were all normal (including her albumin). This made me skeptical about the DaVita lab. We also overheard the Dr. & RN talking to the woman who sees them before us on clinic days (we didn't mean to, but they had the door open and it's a small hallway. We couldn't help but hear), and she had the same imbalances as my mom. I understand that PD patients are prone to similar deficiencies, but.... I'm skeptical. It literally sounded like they were talking to my mom. And what about HIPPA?
2nd: We switched to DaVita Rx and have never had such issues with her meds. She will go weeks without meds b/c they do not send them accordingly. They claim the MD hasn't approved it and that's about it. Even the bundled meds, which were delivered like clockwork before we switched, stopped coming on time. Not good.
3rd: I was told she was in fluid overload. I disagreed. They changed her prescription and she became very dehydrated.
4th: This has nothing to do with my mother, but it was interesting to get an outside view. I met my best friends cousin over the Summer who has been an at home pd patient for many years with a smaller company and doing great. Needless to say, it was taken over by DaVita several months prior to our meeting. He said he's "all messed up" now. He's never had such problems.
5th: Our wonderful PD Nurse retired. And, because DaVita has chosen to place its priority with quantity instead of quality, they are significantly understaffed in the northeast (at least). They are placing the burden of our clinic as well as training a new nurse on an RN who already has her own clinic and patient load to deal with. This has led to a pretty hefty case of patient neglect.
- Baxter, our delivery company, had to change our delivery dates. In order to make sure we had enough supplies to hold us over, they were going to make a
special delivery. When I placed the order, they informed me that they couldn't send her extraneal bags b/c it needed to be renewed onto her prescription.
The nurse was notified the next day, in person. Long story short my mom was off the extraneal for TEN DAYS before the clinic got its act together. She was very
depleted by then. I had to change her prescription manually and deal with a nurse whose response to any of my concerns was, "What would you like me to do
about it?"
-We have been in "limbo" since Feb 2 (I'm writing this March 1). That was the exact word I used when I spoke to our Nephrologist. We had an appt on Feb 16th,
but my mom was too weak to make it (d/t the sudden change in her solutions). I spoke to him on Feb 22. We heard from the nurse later that day. I found
myself on the defensive. "The Dr. said you said this." and "The Dr. said you said that." Ummmmm..... Sorry? I didn't apologize. But, how unprofessional? Don't
call me up attacking me b/c you're not doing your job. I get you're being over extended by your employer (DaVita) and that in healthcare, everyone blames the
nurse, but I'm trying to provide quality of life for my mother. It's not the nurses fault. It's DaVita's. They are trying to grow too fast. $$$$$
6th: Totally under qualified, undertrained RN's. My mother has yet to fully recover from DaVita's unacceptable lack of communication and prioritization. I don't know her current labs b/c they haven't been drawn since Feb. 2 and we have no pending appts. Her B/P has been low. Critically low at times. I informed the Nephrologist when I spoke with him on the 22nd and he said to have her drink broth. Last night, it was so low, I told her she really needs to go to the hospital. She refused (I don't blame her). But, I thought I ought to call the 'on-call' nurse to report this. I was fully prepared for her to ask me my mother's B/P and then instruct me to take her to the hospital. Here's what I got instead:
-"Hello?" "Hello?" That's how she answered. I thought I had the wrong number. I had to ask if this was the on call nurse. I explained my situation. She asked if
my mom was on B/P meds, I said no. She asked if i was using 1.5 bags. I said yes. That was about it. She said I need to call my clinic nurse tomorrow and let
her know. She NEVER asked about the B/P (it was 70's/40's but was even lower at times). My mom is 240 lbs. She NEVER asked about her prescription. I told
her I spoke with the nephrologist and he said to give her her broth, so that's what she proceeded to tell me to do. She NEVER asked for my mother's name. I
asked if she needed our name so she could document the call. She said that they don't document these calls unless it's something tragic. WTF?
As of right now, we still have no appts scheduled. No one from the clinic or from the nephrology office has been in contact with us since last week. DaVita Rx continues to mess up her medication delivery. The on call nurse has no idea what she's doing... All the while I'm watching my poor mother weaken and decline rapidly.
My 1st "heads up", so to speak, happened a few months into treatment. I was not impressed at all with her first few adequacy results and her labs were consistently out of whack. For some reason, we needed blood drawn from an outside lab. Her results were all normal (including her albumin). This made me skeptical about the DaVita lab. We also overheard the Dr. & RN talking to the woman who sees them before us on clinic days (we didn't mean to, but they had the door open and it's a small hallway. We couldn't help but hear), and she had the same imbalances as my mom. I understand that PD patients are prone to similar deficiencies, but.... I'm skeptical. It literally sounded like they were talking to my mom. And what about HIPPA?
2nd: We switched to DaVita Rx and have never had such issues with her meds. She will go weeks without meds b/c they do not send them accordingly. They claim the MD hasn't approved it and that's about it. Even the bundled meds, which were delivered like clockwork before we switched, stopped coming on time. Not good.
3rd: I was told she was in fluid overload. I disagreed. They changed her prescription and she became very dehydrated.
4th: This has nothing to do with my mother, but it was interesting to get an outside view. I met my best friends cousin over the Summer who has been an at home pd patient for many years with a smaller company and doing great. Needless to say, it was taken over by DaVita several months prior to our meeting. He said he's "all messed up" now. He's never had such problems.
5th: Our wonderful PD Nurse retired. And, because DaVita has chosen to place its priority with quantity instead of quality, they are significantly understaffed in the northeast (at least). They are placing the burden of our clinic as well as training a new nurse on an RN who already has her own clinic and patient load to deal with. This has led to a pretty hefty case of patient neglect.
- Baxter, our delivery company, had to change our delivery dates. In order to make sure we had enough supplies to hold us over, they were going to make a
special delivery. When I placed the order, they informed me that they couldn't send her extraneal bags b/c it needed to be renewed onto her prescription.
The nurse was notified the next day, in person. Long story short my mom was off the extraneal for TEN DAYS before the clinic got its act together. She was very
depleted by then. I had to change her prescription manually and deal with a nurse whose response to any of my concerns was, "What would you like me to do
about it?"
-We have been in "limbo" since Feb 2 (I'm writing this March 1). That was the exact word I used when I spoke to our Nephrologist. We had an appt on Feb 16th,
but my mom was too weak to make it (d/t the sudden change in her solutions). I spoke to him on Feb 22. We heard from the nurse later that day. I found
myself on the defensive. "The Dr. said you said this." and "The Dr. said you said that." Ummmmm..... Sorry? I didn't apologize. But, how unprofessional? Don't
call me up attacking me b/c you're not doing your job. I get you're being over extended by your employer (DaVita) and that in healthcare, everyone blames the
nurse, but I'm trying to provide quality of life for my mother. It's not the nurses fault. It's DaVita's. They are trying to grow too fast. $$$$$
6th: Totally under qualified, undertrained RN's. My mother has yet to fully recover from DaVita's unacceptable lack of communication and prioritization. I don't know her current labs b/c they haven't been drawn since Feb. 2 and we have no pending appts. Her B/P has been low. Critically low at times. I informed the Nephrologist when I spoke with him on the 22nd and he said to have her drink broth. Last night, it was so low, I told her she really needs to go to the hospital. She refused (I don't blame her). But, I thought I ought to call the 'on-call' nurse to report this. I was fully prepared for her to ask me my mother's B/P and then instruct me to take her to the hospital. Here's what I got instead:
-"Hello?" "Hello?" That's how she answered. I thought I had the wrong number. I had to ask if this was the on call nurse. I explained my situation. She asked if
my mom was on B/P meds, I said no. She asked if i was using 1.5 bags. I said yes. That was about it. She said I need to call my clinic nurse tomorrow and let
her know. She NEVER asked about the B/P (it was 70's/40's but was even lower at times). My mom is 240 lbs. She NEVER asked about her prescription. I told
her I spoke with the nephrologist and he said to give her her broth, so that's what she proceeded to tell me to do. She NEVER asked for my mother's name. I
asked if she needed our name so she could document the call. She said that they don't document these calls unless it's something tragic. WTF?
As of right now, we still have no appts scheduled. No one from the clinic or from the nephrology office has been in contact with us since last week. DaVita Rx continues to mess up her medication delivery. The on call nurse has no idea what she's doing... All the while I'm watching my poor mother weaken and decline rapidly.
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