Published: April 23, 2008 10:32 pm      

Officials: Dialysis center coming soon

Oceana will soon be home to a regional dialysis center, according to officials.

“As of today, it is a reality,” Mayor Nola Rose said Wednesday. “It’s just wonderful.”

Fresenius Medical Care North America expects to open the new center by this time next year, according to Jim Swann, regional director of health planning.

Swann coordinated the certification process through the West Virginia Health Care Authority.

Currently, the more than 30 patients in Wyoming County who need dialysis treatment must travel to Beckley, Welch or Logan, Swann noted.

The proposed facility will provide a 12-station center that could serve 48 patients with dialysis treatments three times a week, Swann explained.

“We want to make it convenient for patients,” he said, “and make the center successful. This will serve a group of patients that are currently not being served.”

The next step, he said, will be to find a location within town to construct the facility.

Swann gave Rose the credit for bringing the center to reality.

“Obviously, it was her enthusiasm that carried this project forward,” he said of the mayor.

“I’ve done more than 100 applications for this, and I’ve never seen this level of support.”

More than 800 letters were submitted in support of the new dialysis center, Swann said.

“We’re lucky if we get 50 letters of support,” he explained. “This is a new benchmark in terms of support. And it was nothing I did, it was all Mayor Rose.”

The mayor said she’d been working to bring the project to reality for nearly a year.

“The churches all got behind this and wrote letters,” she noted.

“There is a 30-day appeal period,” Swann noted, but he doesn’t anticipate any opposition.

“This will bring some jobs to Oceana. This will bring some much-needed medical services to the area. It’s a win-win for everybody and Nola Rose is the reason.”

With its U.S. headquarters in Massachusetts, Fresenius Medical Care North America, a worldwide company, operates 1,500 facilities across the United States, with 16 in West Virginia.

— E-mail:

mcbrooks@register-herald.com