DaVita: Company saddened by deaths at Lufkin facility

LUFKIN — A DaVita Lufkin Dialysis spokesman said Tuesday the company is saddened by deaths at its facility and is continuing to provide care for its 125 patients who have been relocated to other regional facilities as the state investigates a recent spike in deaths at the facility.

"Many of our teammates knew those patients who passed away like friends or family and they have been deeply and emotionally affected," DaVita Vice President Jerry McNeill stated in a letter to the editor late Tuesday afternoon.

"We hope to reopen the Lufkin dialysis care location at the earliest possible opportunity once we are confident that the safety of everyone involved has been addressed," McNeill wrote.

DaVita shut down its facility at 700 S. John Redditt Drive on April 28 after contacting officials at the Texas Department of State Health Services and Lufkin Police Department about a recent spike in patient deaths.

More than 200 patient records are under review as officials with the DSHS, LPD, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services collect information as far back as 18 months on patients who have died, said Sharon Shaw, administrator for Angelina County and Cities Health District.

Officials are not releasing the number of patient deaths at the center because the time period of the investigation keeps changing, Shaw said Monday.

Since the closure, DaVita has been busing its more than a hundred patients, free of charge, to area treatment facilities — some of which are operated by the company, spokesman Michael Chee said Tuesday.

"We are trying our best to fulfill patient requests," he said.

While the center is closed for the investigation, Chee said its teammates (the company's term for employees) have been employed at other DaVita facilities in the area, but are eager to have the center reopen so they can get back to work.

The facility is expected to be shut down a minimum of 45 days — part of a regulatory agreement with the state — while officials pore through dozens of documents, interview patients and send off lab equipment and water used at the facility to test for contamination, Shaw said.

As of Tuesday evening, nearly 100 comments had been posted on an open news forum at LufkinDailyNews.com about the investigation.

Chee said the company's teammates, which are employees of the company, are "extremely concerned with comments being made and how they effect the reputation of this center which they are apart of, as well as residents in the community."

Chee said he could not comment on specifics of the investigation at this point and that the company is relying on LPD's leadership to determine which direction the investigation will take. DaVita is conducting its own investigation, he added.

A Lufkin police official said Tuesday the department is not releasing any additional information.

"I've have a number of inquiries as to the DaVita Dialysis investigation," said Lt. David Young, a police spokesman. "I spoke with investigators yesterday afternoon and they don't have any additional information they can release at this point. They expect for this to be a somewhat lengthy investigation and aren't able to release any more information in order to protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation."

DaVita, Inc., is a nationwide kidney care service company that serves more than 100,000 patients in 43 states at its more than 1,300 outpatient facilities, the release stated. Its facility in Lufkin on South John Redditt Drive opened November 2006, Chee said. Prior to that, the facility was located on Chestnut Drive.