Fresenius Medical Care and Tennessee Kidney Foundation Perform 200 Kidney Disease Screenings at Healthy 4 Life Expo

Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation’s leading network of dialysis facilities, partnered with the Tennessee Kidney Foundation to screen more than 200 people during the recent WSMV 4 Healthy 4 Life Expo to determine their risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD).

CKD – which affects more than 26 million Americans – is a potentially life-threatening loss of kidney function that often goes undiagnosed in its early stages, when it can still be treated by medication, exercise and diet changes. Once the disease progresses to permanent kidney failure, the only treatments are dialysis several times a week or a kidney transplant. Tennessee has one of the country’s highest rates of kidney failure with over 9,600 people on dialysis to stay alive.

During the expo, Tennessee Kidney Foundation and FMCNA healthcare professionals offered free kidney awareness risk evaluation (KARE) screenings to measure participants’ risk for CKD by evaluating their blood pressure, height, weight and urine test results, along with answers to a few general medical history questions. The medical volunteers also provided general information on CKD and dialysis treatment options during the event, which attracted an estimated 20,000 people to Nashville’s Music City Center on Sept. 20 and 21.

This is the second year FMCNA has teamed up with the Tennessee Kidney Foundation to participate in the event. “Our entire team came together to plan, organize, and staff the event and to provide important kidney health information to the community,” says Rose Wynn, FMCNA’s Regional Vice President. More than two dozen FMCNA employees helped to organize and staff the screening event, along with 3 kidney foundation staff. Jeffrey Hymes, M.D., FMCNA’s Senior Vice President and Associate Chief Medical Officer, also participated at the event, providing post-screening results consultation.

The KARE program is a free community-based, health screening program that seeks to identify individuals at increased risk for kidney disease and encourage them to seek further evaluation and follow up with their physicians. “The goal is to identify the development of kidney disease and/or failure at the earliest possible stages,” says Teresa Davidson, Chief Executive Officer, Tennessee Kidney Foundation. “We hope to educate individuals at increased risk of developing kidney disease about the importance of early detection, early intervention, and preventing the complications of hypertension and diabetes.”

About the Tennessee Kidney Foundation

The Tennessee Kidney Foundation’s mission is to improve the health and well being of Tennesseans affected by kidney disease through education, prevention, treatment, advocacy and promotion of organ donation. Over 502,000 Tennesseans are at risk for Chronic Kidney Disease, many of whom are unaware, so creating great awareness of this silent killer is a central part of the mission of the Tennessee Kidney Foundation. Last year alone at our KARE screenings we found that 36% of the people we screened were obese; 15% of the people screened had an abnormal reading on their urinalysis, which suggest that they have a mild to moderate injury to their kidney. This suggests that they should be seen by their PCP and treated with appropriate medications such as an ACE inhibitor.

For more information about the company, visit www.tennesseekidneyfoundation.org
And look for our KARE screenings

Fresenius Medical Care North America
Through its leading network of more than 2,150 dialysis facilities in North America and vascular access centers, laboratory, pharmacy and affiliated hospitals and nephrology practices, Fresenius Medical Care provides renal services to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is also the continent’s top producer of dialysis equipment, dialyzers and related disposable products and a major supplier of renal pharmaceuticals.

For more information about the company, visit www.fmcna.com; for information about patient services, visit www.ultracare-dialysis.com.