MEDIA ADVISORY: For Thursday, February 13, 2014

Contacts:  Carl Ginsburg 917-405-1060 or Eliza Bates 917-565-2976

Against the backdrop of a grisly record of death rates in the for-profit sector, HHC patients, supported by nurses, other caregivers and community members, are set to demand the New York State Department of Health and the City stop the pending sale of chronic dialysis services at four HHC facilities- Harlem Hospital, Lincoln Hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, and Kings County Medical Center- to Big Apple Dialysis Management, LLC- a private, for-profit healthcare corporation.  

At issue is a 24% difference in mortality rates between the four HHC dialysis units and units operated by Big Apple Dialysis and its sister company, Atlantic Dialysis Management Services, in the greater NYC area.    

"If dialysis patients receiving care at the four HHC units had been treated for the last year at standards followed by the facilities Big Apple Dialysis operates, an additional one in four patients would be dead," said Anne Bove, RN, and president of the HHC executive council of the New York State Nurses Association.  Bove said that the Department of Health has failed to review the track record of Big Apple Dialysis, calling that failure "a complete abandonment of its duty to protect the public's health."

The Public Health and Health Planning Committee of the New York State Department of Health will hold a hearing to review the pending sale again this week, after the motion failed to pass an initial review on January 30th due to lack of evidence from HHC that the transfer of dialysis services to Big Apple would be safe for patients.

Who: NYSNA Nurses, patients, community advocates

What: DOH Hearing to Review Pending Sale of HHC Dialysis Service to Big Apple Dialysis Corporation, LLC

Where: 90 Church Street, 4 ^th floor, Room 4A-4B

When: Thursday,February 13, 9:00AM

Across the country, privatization of dialysis care has been linked to higher mortality rates, unsafe cost-cutting measures such as re-using dialyzers and decline in quality of supplies, and reductions in registered nursing staff qualified to assess dialysis patients.