After five years of planning, grant writing and construction, the V.I. Healthcare Foundation’s Renal Center held a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday to announce it is accepting patients for hemodialysis and other treatments.
The center, located in Sunny Isle Annex, contains 12 dialysis chairs and will schedule two shifts every day with a charge nurse, a manager and three technicians on each shift.
According to Aminah Saleem, V.I. Healthcare Foundation secretary, patients started using the center in January and now there are 24 people who dialyze three times a week. Full capacity of the unit is 78 patients, she added.
Friday’s ceremony featured administrators of the new Renal Center, the V.I. governor and dedications to two former patients.
Dr. Jan Tawakol, founder and president of V.I. Healthcare Foundation, thanked the community for banding together to support better healthcare services.
“Thank you for believing in this mission for investing in the future of healthcare and making a tangible difference in the lives of so many,” he said.
The medical director Dr. Tasnim Khan spoke of being able to help patients when it is especially difficult, such as before and after a hurricane. Patients won’t be forced to leave the island due to a lack of facilities as they did after the 2017 hurricanes. Some will finally come back home, she said.
Dr. H. Keith Johnson, Dialysis Clinic Inc., founder and chairman of the board and Kassidy Addison, DCI senior operations director, also said a few words.
“If a problem is worth solving and people get together to solve it, they will accomplish it,” Johnson said.
Wooden carved plaques were presented to the family of Wallace and Estrid Phaire naming the lobby after them. Wallace was a long time renal patient and advocate for a new clinic. The family of Diane Amrol was also presented a wood plaque naming the treatment room in her honor.
The renal center was built with support from Dialysis Clinic, Inc, a non-profit organization, to design the modern facility. Additionally, DCI will manage the operations at the Renal Center on St. Croix along with more than 250 outpatient clinics and 120 hospital dialysis programs across 30 states.
Gov. Albert Bryan congratulated the medical facility staff and talked about how the V.I. Government funding came to be $2 million instead of the original $1 million request. Bryan listened to the requests from the foundation and then studied the project.
VIHCF received $2 million funding from the governor’s office through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
After opening remarks, staff offered guided tours of the center and refreshments were served.
