Protecting Patients During a Pandemic

As the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, DaVita dedicated itself to helping ensure patients with end stage kidney disease (ESKD) received both the care and the information they needed to help maintain their health. Dialysis is a life-sustaining treatment: Missing a treatment could have significant negative effects. DaVita worked in lockstep with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and kidney health organizations to develop and implement advanced protocols for patient and teammate safety in dialysis centers.
 

Collaboration Across the Industry

DaVita collaborated with the appropriate governmental organizations and dialysis providers nationwide to help maintain care continuity for dialysis patients across the country. These plans included creating isolation cohort capacity with access for other dialysis providers to help patients receive the dialysis care they needed—safely—regardless of their COVID-19 status or symptoms.

Communication and Information

DaVita’s comprehensive COVID-19 information site launched in March 2020 to provide patients with a broad array of resources across multiple channels and media. These resources are available in 14 languages to help patients have access to the information they need.

Emphasizing Clinical Excellence

As the world faced the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, DaVita also continued its focus on delivering safe, high-quality care to patients.

Getting Patients the Dialysis They Need—From Home

For more than 20 years, DaVita has been committed to empowering patients to work with their nephrologists to choose a home dialysis modality. In 2020, we achieved a record percentage of new patients who chose to start on a home dialysis modality —as well as a record percentage of patients switching from in-center treatments to a home modality.

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DaVita continues to expand and innovate how we support our Home Dialysis patients to create a confident, connected and convenient patient experience through home remote monitoring, telehealth and other technology. To help patients thrive in the home environment, we continue to innovate our upstream education, transitional care programs, care partner support programs and more.

Lindsay's Life on HHD

Empowering Patients to Pursue Transplant

DaVita believes a kidney transplant is the best treatment for most of our patients. Transplants are associated with not only improved health outcomes but also an improved quality of life. That is why empowering all patients interested in transplant to be evaluated is part of DaVita's commitment to helping our patients find the right treatment for them.

Treating Patients Across the Continuum of Kidney Disease

Through DaVita® Integrated Kidney Care (DaVita IKC), patients receive comprehensive care that goes beyond kidney care to cover comorbidities and overall health, from the early stages of CKD to ESKD.
 

Baseline assessments help the DaVita IKC care team tailor patient care plans in an effort to delay CKD progression, smooth the transition to ESKD, and help patients choose the right treatment option for them.

DaVita IKC’s focus on value-based care programs has demonstrated positive results across outcomes, experience and cost reduction.

Educating Patients to Make Informed Decisions

In 2020, Kidney Smart® shifted all of its CKD education classes to a virtual platform to promote social distancing while continuing to inform and empower patients.
 

Whether a patient has just been diagnosed with CKD, is transitioning to dialysis or considering a transplant, DaVita’s patient education programs offer the information and answers they need—at no cost.
 

With award-winning materials and more than 200,000 people who have gone through the CKD education program, Kidney Smart has helped many patients experience more positive outcomes.

 Unless otherwise indicated, the data included in this report reflects the year 2020.

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1. Kaiser Family Foundation, as of January 2021

2. 2020 USRDS Annual Data Report, Figure 9.2; ESRD spending as percentage of Medicare fee-for-service spending, 2018

States. National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD, 2018

3. 2020 USRDS Annual Data Report, Table G.7, hospital days among dialysis patients, 2018

4. Peter, S. & Wendy, L. (2015). “Management of Polypharmacy in Dialysis Patients.” Seminars in Dialysis, 28(4), p. 427-432

5. October 2020 CMS Five Star Quality Rating result (Performance Year, 2019)

6. As of December 2020, Internal DaVita Analysis

7. In specific markets. 2020 DaVita Internal analysis; 2019 USRDS Annual Data Report

8. Net Promoter Score of 64 compared to pharmacy (28) or health insurance (13). Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheid and Satmetric Systems, Inc.

9. In specific markets. 2020 DaVita Internal analysis; 2019 USRDS Annual Data Report

10. DaVita Clinical Research analysis, Caremore enrollment files; DaVita Kidney Care internal data; County Health Rankings survey data; Jan 2013 – Dec 2018

11. Internal DaVita analysis of commercial and government IKC program

12. In specific markets, DaVita internal analysis, 2020

13. DaVita Internal Clinical Outcomes Study, May 2016-March 2018. While KidneySmart is not a growth program, KidneySmart-educated patients have been shown to choose PD at a higher rate than non-educated patients.