An invaluable service for patients dealing with kidney issues recently opened in NW Ohio. The Toledo Vascular Access Center is an all-inclusive medical facility for patients needing dialysis treatments and nephrology care in the area.
“We’re trying to make a one-stop shop for our dialysis patients. They need an access— that means a place where blood can be drawn, blood can be cleaned and be given back to them,” said Dr. Balhinder Brar, one of the nephrologists at the center. “All patients have accesses and all accesses need repair, just like your car. They [the patients] come in here, they’re assessed. We have our vascular surgeons who repair that access right here, we clean it out, and then they can go and have their dialysis the same day without going to the hospital.”
Living up to the name
The Center’s current name is a little tricky because, at present, they are only doing part of the procedures they intend to do. “At current time, this is an access center. We are in the process of converting it into an ambulatory surgical center. So it’s going to be Toledo Vascular [Access] Ambulatory Surgical Center where the surgeons and interventional nephrologists together will be able to do the procedures,” said nephrologist Dr. Shaukat Rashid, president of the new center. Hopefully, the surgical center aspect will be available later in the year. Of course, that also means swapping out all nameplates with the current name on them, a small detail in what will be an enormous benefit to a necessary medical care facility.
“This Center really encompasses our vision, to improve the quality of life of our end-stage kidney disease patients [and] dialysis patients,” said Rashid. “Wedid not have anything like this in this area, so we’ve provided a very unique opportunity to our patients in regard to the dialysis access maintenance services as well as in [the] future, we’ll be able to create dialysis access here as well. In the past, patients had to travel multiple places, now they’ll be able to come [to] just one place.”
Location, location, location
According to Brar, “the process takes about 15 or 20 minutes” and “the center can accommodate 10 to 11 patients [at a time] on a given day.” Better still, it will make the lives of patients in NW Ohio much less complicated. “Our radius of service goes all the way to Fremont and Bowling Green and Tiffin, Fostoria. Wauseon, Defiance…” he said. “[Toledo] is central. So it’s easier for people coming from town, plus people coming from the southern and eastern and western parts.”
“It will enhance their quality of life. Outcomes will be better and we believe it will decrease the cost of care for those patients,” said Rashid. “It will decrease the emergency room visits for them; it will decrease their hospitalizations. So all of these things together should enhance the care for our patients.”
The Toledo Vascular Access Center
3439 Granite Circle Ste. 200, Toledo.
7:30-4pm, Monday-Friday Accept most insurance, with doctor referral.
419-842-0011 | lifelinevascularaccess.com
