Bassett: Dialysis centers in Cooperstown, Oneonta score well in national survey on fistula access in kidney treatment

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Bassett Healthcare Network’s dialysis centers in Cooperstown and Oneonta measured in the top 10 percent of 6,620 dialysis centers nationwide and 278 centers in New York for having nearly 85 percent of patients with fistula access.

The data is part of the vascular-access report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) end stage renal disease (ESRD) network, Karen Huxtable-Hooker, public & media relations director at Bassett Healthcare Network, said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry.

CMS’ ESRD network conducted the survey in July, she added.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

A fistula is created surgically to directly connect an artery to a vein and “because it is a natural part of the body, it can last for decades,” according to the Bassett news release.

Arteriovenous fistula, or AV fistula, is the connection a vascular surgeon makes of an artery to a vein and it is considered the “gold standard of vascular access,” Bassett Healthcare Network said in a news release.

“Our Cooperstown dialysis center ranks fifth in the state and among the top five percent of clinics nationally. Our Oneonta center ranks in the top seven percent nationally and seventh statewide,” Dr. Raquel Rosen, chief of nephrology, said in the release. “Fistula is the gold standard because it has a lower risk of infection than the other two types of access (catheters and arteriovenous graft). A fistula is also less likely to clot, allows for greater blood flow so hemodialysis is more effective, and it typically functions much longer than a graft or catheter.”

Nephrology focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease.

CMS and the New York City–based National Kidney Foundation are among the organizations that recommend fistulas for vascular access. The dialysis centers in Cooperstown and Oneonta scored well enough in the CMS report to earn a Medicare quality incentive bonus payment, Bassett said.

For people with kidney failure, dialysis treatment replaces the kidney’s function of cleaning the blood of toxins and removing extra fluids. It is a process that typically takes a few to several hours and the type of vascular access used for the treatment to occur is “critically important” to patient outcomes, Bassett said.

“Fistula first”

Bassett Healthcare Network participates in the CMS “fistula first” program, an activity that the organization describes as a “performance improvement” that Rosen and Dr. Robert Moglia, chief of vascular surgery, initiated “several years ago.”

It is a partnership to promote fistula as a “best practice” for dialysis access, according to the release.

The dialysis workers meet monthly with Bassett’s vascular surgeons to review outcomes and assure new patients are scheduled to have a fistula created rather than having them undergo dialysis with a catheter.

Bassett’s dialysis and surgical personnel do a “fantastic job” ensuring patients get and maintain a fistula, William Brezsnyak, director of dialysis services, contended. Additionally, Bassett’s dialysis centers have a “very low” percentage of catheter and graft access and these options are used only when a patient isn’t a candidate for a fistula.

Bassett Healthcare Network says Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, Oneonta Specialty Services, and Little Falls Hospital offer dialysis services.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com