RCG Celebrates Five Years of Optimal Care

Please Read Sam Brooks' article republished from RCGExchange, a publication for the Associates of RCG.

This month Renal Care Group begins the celebration of its fifth anniversary- "Five Years of Optimal Care." We couldn't have done it without you! Thanks for your part in helping make RCG such a success!

RCG officially became a public company on February 7, 1996. Since then, our company has grown from 800 associates to 5,700 associates strong, 40 centers to 200 centers, four states to 24 states, and from serving 2,700 patients to 16,000 patients.

"I am proud of RCG's growth in these five years. But, what I am most proud of is that we kept our commitment to provide patients with optimal care. In other words, we have continued our focus on ‘doing well by doing good'," said Sam Brooks, CEO of Renal Care Group.

Mr. Brooks continued, "I believe we have the best patient care staff in the business and the best patient outcomes. I would like to express my appreciation to all of our associates for their hard work and dedication to optimal care."

According to Mr. Brooks, we also have the best financial ratios and balance sheet in the business. During this five-year period, the company invested $165 million in upgrades of dialysis machines and other property improvements, $100 million in income taxes paid to federal and state governments and $140 million in purchases of additional dialysis units from hospital and physician owners.

During the last five years, RCG associates and medical directors have worked to improve patient outcomes. We have distinguished ourselves in the industry by both measuring and reporting our outcomes.

Congratulations to all the clinics on their focus in using the CQI process to achieve optimal patient care. Below are the excellent medical outcomes improvements you have achieved since 1996:

• URR levels have improved by 43%, from 51% to 73% of patients achieving a URR >=70%. This exceeds the national average of 44% in 1998, the most recent data available.
• RCG clinics have improved hematocrit values from 79% to 88% of patients with a hematocrit of >= 30%. We have also excelled in the more challenging target of patients with hematocrit >=33%, improving from 53% to 73% of patients meeting that target over the same period of time. This also exceeds the national average of 56% of patients with a hematocrit of >=33% in 1998.
• Even as the nation's ESRD mortality rate has improved to 23.8%, our hospitalization and mortality rates remain better than the national average. Our current hospitalization rate is 11.9 days per patient year at risk and the mortality rate is 22%.
• Our home programs and options education have resulted in the best peritonitis rate ever, with an average of 22 months between new cases of peritonitis, compared to the rate of 17.6 months five years ago. This corresponds to a reduction in the percentage of patients with peritonitis from 7.7% to 4.8%.
• In terms of vascular access, we have increased the number of AV fistulas used in our patients from 18.8% to 27.1% since 1998 and reduced graft clotting events per patient year at risk.

Over the next three months, each office and clinic will participate in local celebrations to recognize the associates, physicians, patients and communities that have contributed to RCG's growth and success. Thanks again for being a part of RCG!