The safety of our patients is always our first priority. We want to reassure our patients that our clinics are safe and that they should continue to come to dialysis. Our commitment to safely caring for all of our patients, including COVID-19 positive patients, has helped guide our response since the outbreak began. Our hearts break for all of those impacted by COVID-19 and we will continue to do everything possible to support our patients and staff.
We are dismayed that this story inaccurately portrayed how we treat our patients and regret any additional stress it has caused our patients and staff. Having accurate information at this time is absolutely critical so we would like to clarify a few points.
Northwest Kidney Centers, having been rated among the top in the nation for quality by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the last several years, was well-positioned to do everything necessary to safely treat our patients and staff under the new conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As soon as we learned that a patient was COVID-19 positive, we contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Public Health – Seattle and King County and began following their recommendations for patient and staff safety.
Following eight weeks of treating patients and contact tracing to determine how a patient may have contracted the virus, as of today, we are not aware of any horizontal (patient-to-patient) transmission of COVID-19 between patients at any of our dialysis clinics.
As the first dialysis provider in the country to treat COVID-19 positive patients, the successful clinical practices we have put in place have helped inform other dialysis providers around the United States and world.
We have implemented daily practices to facilitate open communication, provide up-to-date information and answer any health or safety concern. Open, transparent and accurate communication is a fundamental value we hold and will continue to practice.
We ask our patients and our staff to let us know if they have a health or safety concern. Their health and well-being is our top priority.
We are proud of the quality care we provide and welcome conversations about safety in our clinics.