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3 more Utah prison employees on leave after inmate dies from missed dialysis - Salt Lake Tribune
Preliminary medical reports indicate Estrada, 62, then died of renal failure, but the final autopsy results are not complete, Adams said.
Richard Garden, the prison's medical director, was previously placed on administrative leave pending results of investigations by the Department of Corrections; University of Utah Health Care, whose employees at South Valley Dialysis missed the appointments; and the disability law center.
Estrada's family last month filed a lawsuit in connection to his death.
The University of Utah Health Care investigation found that a technician with South Valley Dialysis had agreed to switch shifts with a co-worker and take the April 3 and 4 appointments. But although the techs both noted the change on a communications log at the prison, the tech who agreed to cover the shifts failed to note the change on his personal calendar, investigators found, and did not go to the prison.
Prison nurses apparently did not try to contact the dialysis center for at least two days after the tech began missing appointments, according to the investigation.
Then, after leaving a phone message in the dialysis center's empty office on the afternoon of Sunday, April 5, prison workers did not seek treatment for six other inmates who missed dialysis treatments until after Estrada died, nearly six hours later, according to the investigation.
Those six inmates were taken to a hospital for evaluation: One was hospitalized overnight, three received dialysis and returned to the prison, and two were found to not need dialysis immediately.
Estrada died while medics were preparing to transfer him to a hospital, Adams has said.
When Estrada died, he was just weeks from being released on parole after nearly a decade in prison on a rape conviction. He had spoken of the importance of his dialysis treatments in a 2008 parole hearing.
"I'm getting very sick and very ill, and if I hadn't gotten into that program I wouldn't be here right now," Estrada said.
The Department of Corrections in April hired WELLCON, a Utah-based consulting firm, to investigate Estrada's death, dialysis treatments at the prison, and overall prison health care. The department's Law Enforcement Bureau also is conducting an internal investigation. The Utah Department of Health will review both investigations.
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3 more employees put on leave as investigation into Utah State Prison inmate's ... - fox13now.com
DRAPER, Utah – Three more employees at the Utah State Prison have been placed on administrative leave based on the preliminary findings of two investigations sparked April 5 when an inmate died after he didn’t receive scheduled dialysis treatments.
A press release issued Thursday by the Utah Department of Corrections states the autopsy report for Ramon C. Estrada, 62, has not been completed yet but preliminary internal review indicates, “that the failure to provide Estrada with dialysis at the prison’s on-site clinic could be a contributing factor in his death.”
Estrada’s children filed a lawsuit in June that accuses the Utah Department of Corrections and University of Utah Health Care, which oversees the contract provider for dialysis services at the prison, of negligence and cruel and unusual punishment in the death of their father, who was due to be paroled shortly.
“They knew he had a serious medical condition that he needed this life-saving dialysis,” Estrada family attorney Alyson McAllister told FOX 13 News in June. “He didn’t get it on Friday and they knew he didn’t get it. He didn’t get it on Saturday and they knew he didn’t get it, and he didn’t get it on Sunday.”
“It’s definitely negligence, but it’s more than negligence,” McAllister said in June. “It’s deliberate indifference.”
The Department of Corrections employees placed on leave worked for the Clinical Services Bureau and were on duty between April 3 and April 5, and it is during that timeframe that a scheduling error meant technicians from South Valley Dialysis, the contract provider for dialysis services at the prison, did not arrive to give Estrada dialysis as scheduled.
The release states that because the status of these employees remains under review, their names will not be released. The Bureau Director for clinical services was put on administrative leave immediately following the fatal incident, and the director remains on leave pending the outcome of the ongoing reviews.
The Department of Corrections retained WELLCOON, described in the press release as a nationally recognized corrections health care consulting firm based in Utah, to conduct an outside review of Estrada’s death, the dialysis program at the prison and the overall health care delivery system at the prison as it relates to dialysis patients as well as mental health issues. WELLCON will make recommendations following the review.
The department’s Law Enforcement Bureau is also “engaged in an extensive internal investigation into the events leading up to Estrada’s death.”
Both reports will be reviewed by the Utah Department of Health before they are finalized. The press release sates the department has already made several changes to procedures after Estrada’s death to improve communication as well as oversight of the contract provider for dialysis services.
According to the press release, the department and South Valley Dialysis have also added additional measures to improve care, which include “provision of weekly summary sheets of inmate dialysis treatment; a procedure for monitoring and tracking inmates who refuse or stop scheduled dialysis treatment; sharing of treatment protocols and notes/orders between the Department and South Valley Dialysis; holding quality assurance protocol reviews every six months; and mandatory joint training of Department and South Valley Dialysis staff who work in the Olympus Facility (where the dialysis clinic is located).”
Workers, patients and community activists are calling out the center's owner, Fresenius Medical Care, for shutting down the facility on Sterling Place without public input or considering the needs of patients. (July 2, 2015 6:50 PM)
A dialysis center in Park Slope is closing its doors next month, leaving nearly 200 patients with nowhere to go and workers without jobs.
Workers, patients and community activists are calling out the center's owner, Fresenius Medical Care, for shutting down the facility on Sterling Place without public input or considering the needs of patients.
Protesters say the closing of the Brooklyn...
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Living Kidney Donation Relatively Safe - Renal and Urology News
July 02, 2015
Ongoing study suggests that renal function continues to increase after donation but decreases in donation-eligible controls.
Living kidney donors exhibit some findings of mild chronic kidney disease (CKD) from 6 to 36 months post-donation, according to a recently published study. At 36 months, however, kidney function continues to improve in donors, whereas controls eligible for kidney donation experience expected age-related declines in function, researchers concluded.
“We've always assumed that living kidney donation is safe, and it is, but safety is a relative thing,” said lead investigator Bertram L. Kasiske, MD, of the Hennepin County Medical Center and University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “There have not been the long-term studies with suitable controls that we need to prove the safety of living kidney donation over time.”
The study compared living kidney donors with a control group of individuals who met eligibility criteria for kidney donation at the donors' transplant center, but did not undergo renal imaging or invasive testing. The investigators obtained medical histories, vital signs, measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR), and other measurements at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after donation.
The 2 groups differed significantly in the change in mGFR after donation. From 6 to 36 months, mean mGFR, as measured by plasma iohexol clearance, increased by 1.09 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year among 198 donors but declined by 0.44 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year among 194 controls, Dr. Kasiske's group reported online ahead of print in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases. Blood pressure (BP) measurements did not differ between donors and controls at any visit; at 36 months, all 24-hour ambulatory BP parameters were similar in 126 controls and 135 donors. Urinary protein-creatinine and albumin-creatinine ratios were not increased in donors versus controls. Compared with controls, donors at 6 to 36 months had higher serum parathyroid hormone, uric acid, homocysteine, and potassium levels and lower hemoglobin levels. These abnormalities could portend a higher risk of fractures or bone problems later in life, Dr. Kasiske said, and elevated uric acid levels coincide with reports of increased rates of gout in some kidney donors.
At 36 months, 183 (89.7%) of the 203 original donors and 173 (86.1%) of the original controls continue to participate in follow-up visits.
DENVER, July 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- DaVita Kidney Care, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) and a leading provider of kidney care services, offers recipes that can help people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) maintain a healthy diet during the Fourth of July weekend.
"Our recipes aim to make it possible for those with kidney disease to continue their kidney-friendly eating plan even during the holidays," said Sara Colman, DaVita Kidney Care dietitian and nutrition manager for DaVita.com. "The recipes we have compiled online and in our cookbooks include fresh ingredients with a balance of healthy proteins and produce to help keep people with CKD nourished and satisfied all summer long."
DaVita's most recent cookbook, Today's Kidney Diet: Healthy Summertime Recipes, features 16 kidney-friendly meals that contain less sodium, phosphorus and potassium. It also includes hydration and thirst-control suggestions, food-safety advice and tips for eating out while on vacation.
The cookbook can be downloaded for free at DaVita.com/Cookbook. More than 900 kidney-friendly recipes, including many that are perfect for barbecues and potlucks, can be accessed at DaVita.com/Recipes. Recipes include:
About DaVita Kidney Care DaVita Kidney Care is a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc., a Fortune 500® company that, through its operating divisions, provides a variety of health care services to patient populations throughout the United States and abroad. A leading provider of dialysis services in the United States, DaVita Kidney Care treats patients with chronic kidney failure and end stage renal disease. DaVita Kidney Care strives to improve patients' quality of life by innovating clinical care, and by offering integrated treatment plans, personalized care teams and convenient health-management services. As of March 31, 2015, DaVita Kidney Care operated or provided administrative services at 2,197 outpatient dialysis centers located in the United States serving approximately 174,000 patients. The company also operated 93 outpatient dialysis centers located in 10 countries outside the United States. DaVita Kidney Care supports numerous programs dedicated to creating positive, sustainable change in communities around the world. The company's leadership development initiatives and social responsibility efforts have been recognized by Fortune, Modern Healthcare, Newsweek and WorldBlu. For more information, please visit DaVita.com.
DaVita and DaVita HealthCare Partners are trademarks or registered trademarks of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.
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