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Stronger together throughout the pandemic – for our patients
Making life-saving equipment available where urgently needed
In Wuhan in China, from where the pandemic began its global spread, Fresenius Medical Care swiftly supplied local hospitals with donations of acute care devices and other materials to help maintain the healthcare infrastructure. We also delivered more than 100,000 face masks and other personal protection equipment to our employees in China.
Qun Xiao was one of the first nurses to treat infected dialysis patients. She recalls that despite her initial anxiety about her, this was soon forgotten when she met her patients.
Once the virus reached Europe, Italy was especially hard hit. Here again, Fresenius Medical Care employees stood together and proved their commitment to defeating this pandemic. The local team rallied together to support a major hospital in Milan with an emergency COVID-19 intensive care unit equipped with ten of our multiFiltrate PRO machines for acute dialysis.
As the time-lapse video below shows, the intensive care unit in Milan was set up within the space of just one week. By working together closely, our colleagues were able to make a big difference, not just to the lives of our chronically ill kidney patients, but also to other patients affected directly by COVID-19.
Time lapse video of new intensive care unit at San Raffaele hospital in Milan, Italy
In Poland, our colleagues supported the country’s health care system by offering mobile dialysis machines to public hospitals that had been converted into single-profile centers for COVID-19 patients. This meant that dialysis patients were able to receive their life-saving therapy in a specialized infection ward in the safest way possible for them and their environment.
Fresenius Medical Care flew 200 acute dialysis machines from Asia to Europe to distribute them wherever they are needed most. Devices for acute therapy are also supposed to be delivered to Latin America and North America.
In North America, we made 150 additional dialysis machines available to U.S. hospitals for the emergency treatment of COVID-19 patients under our newly established National Intensive Renal Care Reserve. This enables us to send dialysis machines to hospitals at short notice.
Joining forces in times of crisis
In the U.S., we have partnered with other dialysis providers to create a nationwide contingency plan for the treatment of dialysis patients infected with COVID-19. This also relieves the burden on hospitals .
We also work closely together with health care systems and local governments to implement solutions and thus offer the best possible patient care. To help address shortages of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) products during the COVID-19 public health emergency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Emergency Use Authorization to Fresenius Medical Care for emergency use of the multiFiltrate PRO System and multiBic/multiPlus Solutions. The equipment has been authorized to provide CRRT to treat patients in an acute care environment during the COVID-19 public health emergency. In addition to the multiBic dialysate solutions being delivered to hospitals in the New York metropolitan area in May, the company also expects the first shipments of the multiFiltrate Pro System to arrive in the U.S. within the following weeks.
Under these difficult circumstances, Fresenius Medical Care’s employees around the world provide the foundation for our company’s success. Together, they not only give their best to ensure that our patients stay safe through this crisis, they also share their motivation and try to keep each other going.
This video was made by the team in Valencia, Spain, one of the countries most heavily affected by the pandemic. It is a heart-warming message of encouragement to all Fresenius Medical Care colleagues and a ray of hope in difficult times.