Congratulations for finding our site, and our service. If you are a dialysis patient, or if you are trying to insure the best possible care for a family member or friend needing dialysis, we hope that this initial contact will open the door to the best professional relationship you have ever had.
Michigan Vascular Access, PC, follows a case management approach, meaning that we emphasize long term management of an important chronic health issue, namely vascular access for dialysis. If you are on hemodialysis, you must have a reliable means to feed a pint of blood a minute to the dialysis machine for purification, and then to get it back immediately. This is no easy matter, but we specialize in providing the means for this transfer of blood back and forth. For most people on dialysis, this will be a life-long concern, hence our interest in long term management.
Generally the recommendation to come to Michigan Vascular Access will come from the patient’s nephrologist (kidney doctor) or dialysis unit. Sometimes patients will hear of us from other patients. In any case, a phone call to the office is enough to get the process started.
The initial appointment in the office is designed to share information: we get information from you so that we can understand your problem, and we give you information about what we think we can do. No procedure will be performed in the office other than an ultrasound examination of the arms. Ordinarily one meeting is enough for a recommendation for surgery to be made.
We ask that you come with all insurance information and current insurance cards, a list of medications, and any other medical information you may have about recent hospitalizations and procedures. Contact information for your cardiologist and primary medical practitioner, or other important physicians involved in your care is helpful. DO NOT DELAY YOUR APPOINTMENT – time is not on the side of those who delay.
Someone from the office may call to review your medical history with your over the phone. This designed to save time and make your actual visit to the office more efficient.
Before your appointment, please visit the “Services” page, and the appropriate patient education section.
