The Task Force organized a Rally for Dialysis Patients Rights outside the Champaign-Urbana Dialysis Center at which patients, care-givers, and community members spoke out about the need for patient rights.
About the rally:
We are calling on the Champaign-Urbana Dialysis Center and its owner, Renal Research Institute (RRI), to immediately rescind the following policies which are harmful to patients and their care-givers, violate disability rights, and pose a public health risk to the local community:
1. The requirement that patients must bring, take home, and launder their own blankets and linens. This is a hardship to patients and it is a public health risk for patients and the public who may be exposed to contaminated blood on the linens and blankets taken in and out of the Dialysis Center. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control, some strains of hepatitis are capable of surviving at least a month on surfaces exposed to bodily fluids containing the virus. Provena Covenant has offered to make the linens and blankets available for free to the Dialysis Center for ALL patients. Why is the Dialysis Center withholding this service from its patients?
2. The ban on care-givers and visitors in the unit. The current policy only allows a care-givers or visitor to visit the patient one time, for only 10 minutes, inside the unit during a dialysis shift (typical shift is 3 to 4 hours). (This policy is also a failure to provide “reasonable accommodation” to patients with disabilities.)
3. The ban on eating in the dialysis unit. This policy is especially harmful for diabetic patients who must maintain a regimented eating schedule. (This policy is also a failure to provide “reasonable accommodation” to patients with disabilities.)
In addition, we are calling on RRI to a) implement adequate and safe staffing levels and fair working conditions for nurses and technicians; and b) respond to patients’ and care-givers’ concerns.
Materials from the Rally: