WINNEMUCCA - Dialysis patients no longer have to travel to Reno's Davita office for treatment since the opening of the new Winnemucca branch in September.
The new office, located on Fairgrounds Road, can treat up to 36 patients in one day. There are 12 treatment stations and three shifts a day. The center currently has seven patients, but hopes to see more once word gets out that the new center has opened.
Dialysis patient Stella Northrup, a Winnemucca resident, had been traveling to Reno for the past eight years, three times a week. Northrup said she took the tribal van out of McDermitt at around five in the morning even though most days her appointment wasn't until 10 a.m. She didn't return to Winnemucca until the late in the evening most days.
"By the time I got home I just wanted to go to bed" Northrup said.
With the new treatment center in town, Northrup only has to spend the four hours she actually receives dialysis at Davita.
"I have a lot more time to spend with my family now," said Northrup, who has nieces and nephews in town that she gets to see much more often now.
Northrup said her quality of life has definitely improved since the Davita office opened in Winnemucca. Whereas before she had to sit in the treatment center for hours after her appointment was over and then make the two and a half hour trip back home, she is now able to have lunch and relax after she is done.
Facility administrator Phillip Schultz said that this new center has been a long time coming.
"Davita cares a lot about the patients," Schultz said. "To have a center out in the middle of nowhere is important."
When Schultz was hiring for positions at the new office, he said a rule he had was that all employees had to live in Winnemucca. Most of the employees he has at the office have lived in Winnemucca for a while.
"It just works," he said.
Schultz, himself, said he has fallen in love with the spirit of Winnemucca.
Ron Plockelman is another local Winnemuccan who was driving to Reno three times a week for dialysis treatment prior to the opening of the new Davita office.
Plockelman retired to Winnemucca in 2001 from Reno and began dialysis treatment last summer.
He was leaving town around 7:30 a.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for his appointment, driving for two and a half hours, receiving treatment for four hours, visiting his wife in the nursing home, and then finally driving the two and a half hours back.
With the free time that he now has, he said he is working on getting back on his feet.
Last year, Plockelman was hospitalized for eight months after his truck was hit by a tractor trailer and his neck was broken. In addition to his neck injury, he was also treated for his kidney and heart problems.
"It's not something that's easy to come back from" Plockelman said.
Now, after treatment, he gets to go home and relax with his three cats rather than make the drive back. He still visits his wife, but now does it on Saturdays twice a month without having to rush home.
With all the money that he is saving on gas, Plockelman said he is stashing the money away to possibly buy a new truck.
Schultz said that all feedback so far has been positive because patients no longer have to drive far, the employees are all local, and "everyone knows the conversation."
"Dialysis is hard enough as it is without having to devote three whole days a week to it," Schultz said.
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