WILLMAR -- Bev Schafer, director of the hemodialysis program at Rice Memorial Hospital, could hardly believe the throng of people lined up for cake and ice cream Thursday afternoon.
"People came from Minneapolis and all over. It is just awesome," she said.
The occasion: the 40th anniversary of the hospital's dialysis program.
Dozens of staff, friends, volunteers and former patients and staff crowded the hospital's garden court for celebration, reminiscence and food.
The dialysis program, which treats patients with chronic end-stage kidney disease, is one of the oldest in Minnesota -- and one of the first to be established outside the Twin Cities.
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Schafer has been the director for all but two of the program's 40 years.
In the 1960s, she recalled, dialysis was a scarce national resource and patients were selected according to strict guidelines.
"They had to be 35 or younger. They had to have a wage-earning job. They couldn't have heart disease or cancer," she said.
It wasn't until 1972, when Medicare decided to cover the cost of dialysis, that the service became more widespread, ultimately allowing more people to live longer with failing kidneys.
Dialysis technology acts as an artificial kidney, filtering harmful toxins and fluids that would otherwise build up in the bloodstream. Patients who receive dialysis must be treated at least three times a week.
"Our equipment has always been state-of-the-art," Schafer said. "We've seen many evolutions. We're now doing in three or four hours what we used to do in six to 14 hours."
Over the past four decades, 620 patients have undergone dialysis at Rice Hospital. It's not uncommon for some to receive dialysis for 10 or 15 years. Schafer knows of two patients who had dialysis for 26 years.
Such a high level of ongoing care means that patients and staff often become very close.
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"It's like a big family," said Richard Larson, who has volunteered in the dialysis department for almost 17 years.
"I just love it," Schafer agreed. "It's the people. It's the patients, the staff."
Dr. Richard Rasmussen, the program's medical director, pointed out that many hospitals don't offer dialysis. Indeed, Rice is one of only a few dialysis programs nationally that are hospital-owned and hospital-based; most dialysis services are owned by for-profit companies that might not take the sickest patients or those with complex needs.
"In this day and age we're really fortunate," Rasmussen said. "This is really a center of excellence. You have a group of highly motivated nurses who have professional curiosity and intellectual curiosity. Every day we're reviewing literature and looking at what's new. We want quality of care and quality of life for the patient."
Rice Memorial Hospital's dialysis program has won several awards for its level of care. In 2002 it was among only a handful of hospitals that received the Novation/VHA Excellence in Patient Care award. It also was singled out with an innovation award from the Minnesota Hospital Association for a program -- one of the first of its kind -- that helps patients and families make the decision about whether to discontinue treatment.
