Knight, of Prairie Village, is one of hundreds of people whose lives may have been saved by the screening program. Since 1997, the program has checked 2,543 patients whose medical histories or conditions make them prime candidates for kidney failure. About 62 percent of those patients showed the first signs of kidney disease. Not only does early detection save lives, it saves money. I am so tired of seeing patients when the first time I see them all I can do is get them ready for dialysis.
Dialysis filters impurities from patients' kidneys.
But the lifesaving treatment is expensive, costing a patient tens of thousands of dollars a year. About 4,700 people in Missouri and 1,900 people in Kansas are on dialysis. The screening program focuses on minorities, who are more susceptible to kidney disease, and reaches immigrants who cannot afford dialysis. The effort, called the Early Intervention Program, is a joint project of the National Kidney Foundation of Kansas and Western Missouri and the Missouri Kidney Program. Though programs in other parts of the country screen for kidney problems, the area program doesn't require a doctor, as the others do.