Dr. Fernando Kafie, a board-certified vascular surgeon with Southeast Vascular Group at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, was recently named a Fistula First Champion Surgeon by Florida’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (FMQIO) and the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network of Florida.

Fistula First Champion Surgeons are surgeons who have been identified by Florida dialysis providers as instrumental in helping them achieve an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) placement rate of 60% or greater during the 3rd quarter of 2008.  These surgeons have exemplified a devotion to ESRD patient care and have superior results.

An AVF is a surgical connection between an artery and a vein that is created for hemodialysis treatments in patients with kidney failure.  During hemodialysis, blood is withdrawn from the AVF, purified and returned to the body three times a week. Kidney failure patients with a functional AVF live longer and healthier lives. 

As a healthcare quality improvement organization, FMQIO works with providers in hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes, and many other provider settings to implement projects focused on improving the care provided to over three million Medicare beneficiaries in Florida.  As an organization they help identify individual physicians like Dr. Kafie with outstanding surgical results.  FMQIO’s mission is to ensure the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of health care services provided to Medicare beneficiaries.

For more information on vascular services at Sacred Heart, please call (850) 416-1600 or visit www.sacred-heart.org.

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