DCI Foundation Division

In partnership with Adventist Health Tillamook, DCI is reopening Tillamook’s dialysis clinic after it was closed by previous ownership in early 2024. The clinic closure created a significant burden for local patients who received their dialysis care there. Without their neighborhood dialysis clinic, most patients have had to drive 120 miles roundtrip to the nearest clinic for life-sustaining dialysis. Though the Tillamook clinic will likely operate at a loss based on current reimbursement rates, the benefit to patients and the community is clear. DCI is committed to seeking philanthropic support for the Tillamook clinic to ensure dialysis care is accessible close to home for patients and their families.

To learn more about the Tillamook Kidney Center and how to make an online donation, you can view the recent press release from Adventist Health Tillamook here.

When dialysis patients approach the end of life, many face the difficult decision of choosing between stopping dialysis to receive hospice services or continuing dialysis treatments through the end of life. The current Medicare Hospice Benefit does not cover the cost of both hospice and dialysis when provided at the same time. To eliminate this barrier to hospice services, DCI, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and UPMC’s Family Hospice have partnered since 2018 to run the Concurrent Hospice-Dialysis Program in western Pennsylvania, providing palliative dialysis treatments to patients who elect to receive hospice services and dialysis treatments concurrently. The program aims to improve end-of-life care for people on dialysis by increasing access to hospice care and informing national policy toward developing a reimbursable hospice model that includes palliative dialysis.