NKC scores well on federal quality measures

The federal government provides a report each year on the quality of treatment at individual Northwest Kidney Centers dialysis units and all other dialysis centers across the country—the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center reports. The reports are officially called the Dialysis Facility Reports, but we usually refer to them as the KECC reports. KECC reports summarize each unit’s quality results.

KECC reports summarize each unit’s quality results and compare them to the national level. We took all 13 NKC dialysis center reports and summarized them to get a picture of how NKC compares as a whole to the rest of the country, factoring in patients’ age and complicating conditions.

∙	NKC annual patient mortality for 2005-2008 was 18.7 percent, compared to the national average of 21 percent.
∙	First-year new patient mortality from 2005-2007 was 24.1 percent while the national average was 28.1 percent.
∙	NKC supported a record-breaking 81 transplants in 2008; our four-year transplant rate is 67 percent higher than the national average. Ten percent of eligible patients are transplanted versus the national average of 6 percent.
∙	Average days in hospital per NKC patient/per year is 9 days, compared to 15 nationwide.
∙	Average length of stay per NKC patient in hospital is 5.5 days, compared to the national average of 7.8 days.

The 13 NKC dialysis center reports follow (PDF):

Auburn Kidney Center

Elliott Bay Kidney Center

Haviland Kidney Center

Kent Kidney Center

Lake City Kidney Center

Lake Washington Kidney Center

Mount Rainier Kidney Center

Port Angeles Kidney Center

Scribner Kidney Center

SeaTac Kidney Center

Snoqualmie Ridge Kidney Center

Totem Lake Kidney Center

West Seattle Kidney Center