Wake Forest Opens Dialysis Center in Elkin

January 18, 2002

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - To improve access to kidney dialysis for patients in southern Surry, Yadkin and Wilkes counties, Wake Forest University School of Medicine has opened Elkin Dialysis Center at 941 Johnson Ridge Road in Elkin. The 7,700-square-foot center has 10 dialysis stations, which means it can accommodate up to 40 patients a week. It is the tenth in the region owned by the medical school. Already, 32 patients are receiving dialysis three times a week at the new center.

Elkin Dialysis Center patients will be under the medical supervision of nephrologists either from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center or Forsyth Memorial Hospital.

"We opened this center to make life easier for patients in southern Surry County, who had to go through some difficult terrain to get to our center in Mount Airy," said Barry I. Freedman, M.D., head of the Section on Nephrology at Wake Forest. "It will also make access easier for patients in need of our services in parts of Wilkes and Yadkin counties."

The center is managed by Health Systems Management of Tifton, Ga., which also manages the other nine Wake Forest centers. The Northside Dialysis Center at 500 W. Hanes Mill Rd. in Winston-Salem opened this past Oct. 3.

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Contact: Robert Conn, Jim Steele or Mark Wright at (336) 716-4587

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