Fresenius Medical Care continues to prioritize the safety of patients and staff while ensuring access to safe, high-quality care during the wildfires in Southern California. All of our Fresenius Kidney Care outpatient dialysis centers in the Southern California area are currently operational. Two dialysis centers briefly experienced a several-hour power interruption on January 8, 2025, and all patients impacted by the outage were offered rescheduled appointments or treatment at nearby dialysis centers. Power has since been restored to the two affected dialysis centers.
Fresenius Medical Care's dedicated Disaster Response Team helps assure preparedness in advance of natural disasters, including fires. As the fires broke out, we immediately mobilized our Disaster Response Team to begin coordination with our local teams, doctors, hospitals, utilities, and local authorities. Our Disaster Response Team meets several times each day with representatives from departments across the company to report on the status of our operations. We proactively contact and account for patients receiving dialysis services and our employees. In real time, care teams and social workers collaborate in the efforts to communicate resources and support schedule adjustments for patients affected by the fires. Biomedical technicians continue to address air quality challenges by deploying air scrubbers to centers and providing N95 masks to patients and staff.
We have contacted all home dialysis patients in the area to confirm that they can continue their treatments safely. For home dialysis patients, we have established contingency plans in place in efforts to maintain uninterrupted care and encourage proactive planning with their care teams and physicians to understand their back-up plans in case of an emergency. These may include:
- Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) patients: Some patients may be able to perform Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) treatments, which do not require power.
- Home Hemodialysis (HHD) patients: Patients are advised to visit their nearest Fresenius Kidney Care center for treatment if they experience power or water outages at home or need to evacuate.
We encourage patients to remain in close contact with their local dialysis center throughout the fires and to contact our 24-hour toll-free Patient Emergency Line at (800) 626-1297. Even if local phone or internet service is down, this line is available for assistance and includes the most up-to-date information on our operations in the area.
Fresenius Medical Care is committed to helping ensure that every person in need of dialysis treatment can receive care, regardless of their usual provider.
In case of medical emergencies, patients should call 911.