It’s Tuesday and Mary Weiler of Warrensburg is receiving renal dialysis treatment at Glens Falls Hospital. She’ll be here for about four hours, in a chair, sitting as still as possible while a machine filters toxins from her blood, doing the job her steadily deteriorating kidneys can no longer handle.

Mary will be here twice more this week. She’ll return three times next week, and every week after that. She has kidney disease, and the 12 hours she spends in the Center each week keep her alive.

“This is not just a lifestyle,” Mary says. “It’s your life.”

Mary is one of the many local people whose dependence on dialysis has inspired the Hospital to announce plans for a new Outpatient Renal Center on Broad Street in Glens Falls, between the former Northcare Building and the Broad Street Office of Glens Falls National Bank.

When complete later this year, the facility will become the centerpiece of the Hospital’s new Broad Street Campus, which also includes six important services offered from the former Northcare Building (see “President’s Pen”).

 “This project is all about making dialysis treatment as convenient and comfortable as possible,” says Kathy Andersen, R.N., the Center’s Nurse Manager.

Unlike the Hospital’s present 2,100-square-foot dialysis facility, located in a retrofitted physician’s office on Park Street, the new $2.6-million, 13,000-square-foot Center will be designed specifically for the delivery of dialysis treatments and follow-up care. Included will be a heating system, specially engineered for dialysis patients, who often become cold during treatments, and a dedicated education center.

In addition, the new Center will allow for daily treatment of 48 patients as compared to 39 patients per day today, providing greater flexibility in scheduling.

 “Right now, we have patients who we can only accommodate in the evening, including some who live more than an hour away,” Kathy says. “Four hours of treatment sandwiched between hour-long drives, makes for a very long night.”

The expanded capacity will also enable the Hospital to better serve dialysis patients who vacation in the greater Glens Falls region. Some summer visitors to the area now travel as far as Albany or Vermont for treatment.

Mary Weiler says she’s looking forward to the services offered at the new Center, and she’s happy that the Hospital’s renal staff will have the opportunity to practice their profession in a brand-new, high-tech facility.

 “You have to remember, dialysis patients are there three or four times a week,” Mary says. “The staff is a second family, and that family is keeping you alive.”