Apollo Healthcare, Memorial dedicate new dialysis center

Apollo Healthcare, Memorial dedicate dialysis center

Niagara County’s largest and most modern dialysis center was dedicated August 15 during ceremonies at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.

The new Niagara Renal Center, located on the ground floor of the medical center in space formerly occupied by Memorial’s ER1 Emergency Department, cost $2 million to build and furnish and houses 17 dialysis stations. It will replace a nine-station facility on the medical center’s fourth floor.

The new center is jointly owned by Apollo Healthcare, LLC; local nephrologist Sujatha Addagatla, M.D.; and the medical center.

“This expanded facility will significantly reduce the number of unnecessary trips to Buffalo for people who live in Niagara County and northern Erie County,” said Michael S. Sloma, President/CEO of Apollo Healthcare.

Memorial President & CEO Joseph A. Ruffolo noted the growing prevalence of end-stage kidney disease among local residents coupled with the area’s aging population have resulted in a growing demand for outpatient dialysis services.

“The new Niagara Renal Center at Memorial addresses a pressing community need,” Ruffolo said. “Its expanded capacity will be a tremendous benefit to scores of local patients who depend on this life sustaining treatment.”

Drive-up patient access is located off 10th Street through the center’s covered entryway – the same entrance that formerly served generations of Niagarans as the door to Memorial’s emergency room.

“Dialysis patients are often seriously ill and have mobility issues,” Ruffolo said. “This drive-up entrance will prove to be a welcome convenience for them.”

Dialysis stations in the new center feature a clean, spacious look and are designed for maximum patient comfort. Each station has a 15-inch LCD television connected to an in-house entertainment center that also affords access to educational videos.

The new center employs a sophisticated high-temperature water purification system that eliminates the need to use chemicals to purify and disinfect the dialysis equipment.

Apollo Healthcare is an integrated healthcare company dedicated to improving the lives of people who live with kidney disorders. Apollo is developing an interdependent network of scientists, physicians, caregivers, and treatment centers that will diagnose and treat the multiple conditions associated with end-stage renal disease.

With corporate offices in Niagara Falls, it also operates renal centers in the Town of Niagara, Lockport and on Long Island. To learn more about Apollo Healthcare, visit www.ApolloHealth.us.

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, a full-service, 183-bed medical center meeting the health care needs of the Greater Niagara community for more than a century, offers extensive inpatient and outpatient services and a wide array of wellness programs and support groups. Memorial also operates the 120-bed Schoellkopf Health Center, the Hamilton B. Mizer Primary Care Center, and the Summit Healthplex in Wheatfield.