National Kidney Foundation www.kidney.org   About Kidney Disease Chronic kidney disease includes conditions that damage one’s kidneys and decrease their ability to keep a person healthy. If kidney disease gets worse, wastes can build to high levels in the blood and make a person feel sick. Complications such as high blood pressure, anemia (low blood count), weak bones, poor nutritional health and nerve damage can develop. Kidney disease also increases one’s risk of having heart and blood vessel disease. Chronic kidney disease may be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. Early detection and treatment can often keep chronic kidney disease from getting worse. When kidney disease progresses, it may eventually lead to kidney failure, which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life. Twenty-six million Americans have CKD and another 20 million more are at increased risk. (Source: www.kidney.org)  Fresenius Medical Care www.fmc-ag.com Fesenius Medical Care is the world's largest integrated provider of products and services for individuals undergoing dialysis because of chronic kidney failure, a condition that affects more than 1,600,000 individuals worldwide. Fresenius Medical Care operates 2,000 dialysis centers around the world. Fresenius Medical Care has been supportive, offering their expertise in design and operation.  They are a vertically integrated company, which offers products and services for the entire dialysis value chain.   Although Le Mars Area Dialysis Services will own and govern the clinic, they intend to contract with Fresenius for the daily operation of the clinic.