Dr. Steven Burka (above) is a nephrologist, medical director and partner with DCA. “I’m able to make the clinical decisions necessary for my patients while DCA deals with the day-to-day operations,” he says.

Premier Business Partners:

B Braun Medical Inc.

For a firm like Dialysis Corp. of America (DCA), the ability to provide a high level of service can not only mean the enhancement of its bottom line, but also the improvement of people’s lives, President and CEO Stephen Everett says. “By providing a high quality of care, you’re keeping them out of the hospital,” he explains.

Based in Linthicum, Md., the company owns and operates kidney dialysis centers in Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. Currently, DCA provides care for approximately 2,000 patients, Everett says.

CFO Andrew Jeanneret says the firm’s current incarnation resulted from the 2005 merger of an incubator business and a dialysis company: DCA and Medicore, a Florida-based company that owned a majority stake in DCA, invested in various technology companies and also sold medical supplies.

Today, DCA operates 37 clinics and estimates its 2008 revenues to reach more than $85 million.
As DCA has grown its number of facilities, the company has focused on forming joint ventures with physicians whenever possible, Everett says. “Physicians are the ones that are responsible for a dialysis company’s success or failure,” he says, noting that doctors often bring their patients with them when opening a center with DCA. “About one-third of our facilities today are joint ventures.”

Looking for Opportunities
DCA takes great care when forming joint ventures with physicians, Everett says. Members of the company’s business development team will meet with the doctors to determine if “there’s an opportunity for DCA and these physicians that will be mutually rewarding,” he says.
However, before it forms a partnership with the physicians, DCA will take its time to get to know them first.

“It can be a six-month relationship or more before we decide to enter into a dialysis facility together,” Everett says. “We want to get to know these guys before we commit.”

If the doctors do not have the right traits, the firm does not hesitate in walking away, Everett asserts.
“If we were all about growth, our number of locations could be significantly higher,” he says. “We walk away from as many opportunities as the ones we don’t walk away from.”

Rewarding Work
Both Jeanneret and Everett are veterans of the healthcare industry. Previously, Jeanneret worked in corporate finance at several healthcare-related companies, as well as in the pharmaceutical, life science and medical science industries.

Everett has been in healthcare for 25 years, and entered the dialysis field when he joined Vivra Inc., a dialysis services company, in 1993. There, he was responsible for oversight, deal structuring, physician recruitment and practice management.

He joined DCA six years later and says he has found his time in the industry to be extremely rewarding. “Healthcare is always changing, so that makes it interesting and challenging,” he notes, adding that DCA is now in a growth mode.

For instance, on Jan. 5, the company announced its acquisition of the Maryland Dialysis Center at the St. Thomas More Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Hyattsville, Md. The center has 24 treatment stations and provides care for approximately 145 dialysis patients.

“It’s now our largest facility,” Everett reports, adding that the company is also preparing to introduce a new clinical information system that will enhance its ability to serve patients.

The system, from Health Informatics Inc., “will help automate the collection of clinical data, enhance revenue opportunities and improve patient outcomes by reacting sooner to a patient’s treatment plan,” Jeanneret explains. “We won’t get the complete benefits until 2010, but we should start seeing benefits in 2009 as the system gets installed at each facility.”

Everett stresses that he is excited about the future of DCA. “We have developed a team of folks that I’m very impressed by and proud to be working with,” he says. “I have no doubt they will be instrumental in our company’s future success.”