SAUGUS – Fresenius Medical Care Essex County?s North Suburban Dialysis Center, located in a strip mall at 124 Broadway (Route 1 North) in Saugus, was recently named by its parent company, Fresnenius Medical Care, as a center of excellence for patient care.Liz Bode, a nurse a North Suburban Dialysis, and Karen Lofty, a social worker at the dialysis center, spoke to The Item last week about kidney disease, the dialysis process and how the center works not only to administer dialysis but to address patients? mental health as well.?Patients here have chronic, complete end-stage renal failure. But with dialysis, they can live as normal life as possible. We have patients who work, and patients who travel, and we foster that,” Bode said.And with regular dialysis lifespan isn?t necessarily curtailed. “We have one patient who has been on dialysis for 32 years and the Saugus paper did an article on her a couple of years ago. She?s still going strong, but she recently switched to home dialysis in another city.”Typical patients come to the center three times per week for hemodialysis sessions lasting three-to-four hours each. The treatment performs the work normally done by kidneys, in which a machine (an artificial membrane outside the body) removes excess water from the body and waste products from blood. The North Suburban Dialysis Center has 20 hemodialysis chairs.Another common type of dialysis is peritoneal, in which the dialysis is performed inside the body, and patients are trained to perform this process at home. The North Suburban Dialysis Center also trains patients who elect peritoneal dialysis.The Saugus center, staffed for three shifts six days a week, treats 120 adult patients a year who range in age from 20 to 90, each who visit three times a week.The Center also helps coordinate patient transportation for those who do not drive, working closely with MBTA?s The Ride. And even when challenges come up, for instance if a patient becomes ill for other reasons making it difficult to come into the center, “then we have more intensive transportation. They?ll come by ambulance,” Lofty said. “It?s life-sustaining so they have to make it in here.”Treating the mental health aspect of kidney disease is equally important as treating the disease itself, Lofty said.?Clinical depression is common when people find out they have end-stage kidney disease and need dialysis three times a week for the rest of their life. It?s hard to accept and it?s a major lifestyle change,” Lofty said. “We initially meet with patients and explain the types of dialysis and their options, and if they decide to stay here we meet with them weekly and the staff goes out of our way to get to know each person. Especially if we see someone really struggling, we make sure we talk to them and it helps for them to bring their families in.”Bode noted that one of the best mental therapies for those newly diagnosed is to meet and talk with others who have been on dialysis for years.?When (new patients) see how well others are doing, that they?re living normal lives, it does make it easier for them,” she said.Bode said there?s really no pain associated with dialysis other than needles, “but they have the option of having anesthetic.”And during dialysis at the North Suburban center, each patient has his or her own television screen, or they can surf the Internet or play electronic touch-screen games.?They love the games,” Bode and Lofty said in unison.And in a short time, Lofty said, many patients actually look forward to coming in for dialysis.?We become a lot like a family in some ways for some of them. Here are their friends,” she said. “We have quite a few patients who are eligible to get transplants, or for home dialysis, but they choose to continue coming in. It?s one of the few ways they get out.”The North Suburban Dialysis Center recently held its 5th annual patient reunion. At Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, and more than 60 patients attended and nearly the entire