Dialysis Centre With 'A Difference'

The plush reclining chairs provide comfort while the flat-screen televisions with wireless headsets (two patients to one television) provide patients with entertainment while undergoing their treatment.

The soft lighting and pleasant ambience was purposefully added to offer patients a warm and welcoming environment. Refreshments are also made available.

Welcome to the B. Braun Avitum Centre in Puchong, Selangor.

B. Braun Avitum Renal Services Sdn Bhd's chief operations officer Lynette Lim said the B. Braun Avitum Dialysis Centre (BBA) is committed to provide patients with optimum care and quality services.

The centre is equipped with a trained team of healthcare professionals who utilise state-of-the-art facilities built to stringent international patient safety specifications.

The company has branches in Puchong, Selangor, Tawau in Sabah and Butterworth, Penang. Another, in Kota Kinabalu is set to be operational this month.

The Puchong centre opened its doors to the public on April 1 2009. The Tawau centre followed suit in October the same year while that in Butterworth made its bow in April this year.

COMPETENCE IN HEALTHCARE

Lim said the B. Braun Group stands for 'competence in healthcare'.

"For more than 165 years, the company has been researching, developing, producing and distributing products and services for the healthcare industry worldwide.

"Among others, B. Braun's orthopedic implants are widely used by patients sponsored by the Public Services Department (JPA)," she said.

B. Braun operates a manufacturing plant in Penang. This plant, which started operations in 1980, has grown into a sizable investment of more than RM850 million.

She said that despite the global economic downturn, B. Braun in exercising its commitment to the industry and its Malaysian workforce, will continue to grow its operations by expanding its production plant in Penang over the next two years with an additional investment of RM300 million.

"B. Braun Avitum is focused in the area of Extracorporeal Blood Treatment. This entails the development, manufacturing and marketing of products and systems for haemodialysis, therapeutic apheresis and acute dialysis treatments.

"We also provide a comprehensive range of support and consultancy services backed with valuable know-how and years of experience in the dialysis market domestically and internationally," she said.

According to Lim, B. Braun Avitum has a proven track record with many years of experience in dialysis treatment and expertise worldwide, with established dialysis centres in Europe, South Africa and Asia Pacific.

DIALOG + MACHINES

Lim said the centre is equip with B. Braun's Dialog+ hemodialysis machines.

"All Dialog+ machines come with pyrogen filters and battery back up".

B. Braun machines provide intelligent blood pressure stabilisation for more comfortable therapy. It is said to be the only system on the market that measures a patient's blood pressure directly - a feature which makes the procedure especially safe and reliable, she said.

"This option markedly reduces the incidence of hypotensive episodes and symptoms during dialysis sessions. Moreover, the technology used cuts the number of blood pressure measurements in half. The added benefit is greater comfort for patients"

DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The Puchong centre is equipped with B. Braun's Nexadia Expert data management system which is a powerful and user-friendly database for dialysis centre data management.

Operation of Nexadia Expert is intuitive. Functions include the editing and archiving of all treatment and patient-related data and preparation of the documentation required for quality assurance and reporting to the National Renal Registry.

"An ultra-pure RO (reverse osmosis) machine will be installed at our centre to ensure high water quality. This system uses double filtration to provide better water quality by reducing endotoxin levels, therefore, reducing the risk of patient infection.

"Our centre also has a separate room specifically for the management of patients with hepatitis.

All equipment used in this room is segregated and only single use consumables and dialysers for hepatitis patients are used. This is to reduce the risk of sero-conversion at the centre," said Lim.

COSTS

Lim said the cost to set up a B. Braun Avitum Centre is about RM700,000.

"There are 10 machines in each centre and we adhere to the medical authorities' guideline of one nurse to six patients. The centre operates from 7 am until 5.30 pm".

She said the centre charges RM175 per dialysis session from Monday to Saturday. There are two shifts.

For the BBA Dialysis Centre in Puchong, there is one nephrologist (visiting consultant), a doctor, three nurses and one dialysis technician available.

Transport is provided within Puchong area (within 5km radius of the centre).

The Puchong centre is at No. 8-0 Jalan Puteri 4/2 Bandar Puteri, Puchong, 47100 Selangor (tel no:03-80600863).

Source: Bernama