{ History }
A history of helping people with kidney disease
Throughout its long history, DaVita has always been focused on one thing - helping people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associated diseases achieve the best possible quality of life. He/she who gives life = DaVita.
What is now known as DaVita, Inc., began in 1979 as a division of National Medical Enterprises, Inc., and formed to own and operate its hospital-based dialysis services as free-standing centers.
The division, known as Medical Ambulatory Care, was spun off in 1994 in a leveraged buyout led by management, creating a new entity, Total Renal Care. At the time, the company operated only a handful of outpatient facilities, but once on its own, it began to aggressively expand, nearly doubling its size in a little more than a year.
In 1997, Total Renal Care continued to acquire dialysis facilities, hospital contracts, and competitors at an unprecedented rate. In 2000, under the leadership of Kent J. Thiry, the company changed its name to DaVita, Inc., to reflect the company’s new philosophy of being “the provider, partner, and employer of choice.”
In 2004, DaVita became the second-largest provider of dialysis services in the U.S. and in December of that year acquired Gambro Healthcare, making DaVita the nation’s largest provider. The company leveraged its expertise in kidney research by forming Total Renal Research to conduct Phase I-IV clinical studies on behalf of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The name of this division was changed to DaVita Clinical Research (DCR) in 2000. Today, DCR is the largest clinical research facility in the U.S. focused primarily on kidney care.
