Patients hail dialysis centers

Within a month, the Palouse region went from having long-distance access to kidney dialysis to having two centers in Moscow.

Palouse Dialysis Center and Moscow Dialysis Center both opened in August in Moscow, offering a service for which people in the region used to have to drive to Spokane or the Lewiston/Clarkston Valley.

“They both believe there is enough need in our community that both of them will survive even with the competition,” said Pullman Regional Hospital chief clinical officer Jeannie Eylar.

“It was a surprise to me that we had two,” she said.

The Moscow Dialysis Center, located at 212 Rodeo Drive in Moscow, has just three patients right now, but will be able to take more if the center passes a mandated survey by Medicare before Oct. 1.

The Palouse Dialysis Center, which leases its office from Gritman Medical Center at 723 South Main Street, has two patients right now and is also awaiting approval from Medicare.

Most patients going through kidney dialysis are on Medicare, said Sandy Loskill, Moscow Dialysis facility administrator. That is why Medicare must screen and approve their center before allowing them to bill them.

Five to eight more patients on Medicare are already waiting to get in once the Moscow center is approved, Loskill said.

The Palouse center also has people on Medicare waiting until the center is approved.

The basic function of kidney dialysis is to help clean the blood of a person whose kidneys have failed by processing it through two or three feet of machinery. The process takes upward of four hours, depending on the size of the patient.

“We don’t drain you out and fill you up,” Loskill said. “A small amount circulates in and out every three to four hours.”

Patient David Klingenberg, who lives in Moscow, is one of the first patients to regularly visit the Moscow center.

He has been on kidney dialysis for the past five years after his kidneys failed when a cat-scan at the Veterans Administration went horribly wrong. His kidneys over-reacted to a substance used for the cat- scan, then failed.

For the past few years, he did his kidney dialysis at home, and took trips once a month to the Tri-State Memorial Hospital in Clarkston.

At 38 years old, Klingenberg said he still maintains an active lifestyle, still enjoys outdoor sports, working on the lawn, and taking care of his son.

“A lot of patients think your life comes to an end when you have kidney failure,” Klingenberg said. “I pretty much do all the things I did before.”

Both clinics have visiting nephrologists, specialists who deal with kidney problems. Also, both clinics are currently only open three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Gritman had been searching for a dialysis center and examined three major dialysis companies over a year ago. They selected Fresenius, a national company specializing in kidney dialysis.

The Palouse clinic is jointly owned by Gritman Medical Center, Sacred Heart Medical Center, and Fresenius.