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For Dialysis Patients, 2 Broad Street Facility Is The Center of Their Lives

Many dialysis patients spend four hours a day, three days a week at Glens Falls Hospital. The Renal Dialysis Center makes their life-saving treatment more convenient and comfortable.

It's Tuesday and Mary Weiler of Warrensburg is receiving dialysis treatment at Glens Falls Hospital. She'll be here for about four hours, while the machine filters toxins and fluid from her blood. 

She'll return three times next week, and every week after that. She has kidney disease.  The 12 hours she spends in the Center each week keeps 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 inspired the Hospital to build its new Renal Dialysis Center in 2001.  The Center is located on Broad Street in Glens Falls, between the former Northcare Building and the Broad Street Office of Glens Falls National Bank. 

The Center opened in April 2001, becoming the centerpiece of the Hospital's Broad Street Campus, which also includes four important services offered from the former Northcare Building.

"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 $2.6-million, 13,000-square-foot Center is designed specifically for the delivery of dialysis treatments and follow-up care. Included are a heating system, specially engineered for dialysis patients, who often become cold during treatments, and a dedicated education center.

In addition, the new Center allows for daily treatment of 54 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 also enables the Hospital to better serve dialysis patients who vacation in the greater Glens Falls region. Some summer visitors 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 times a week," Mary says. "The staff is a second family, and that family is keeping you alive."

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