On August 2nd, 2021, the FDA approved SAPHNELO™, a systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE treatment and only the third of its kind since 2011. SAPHNELO™, a human monoclonal antibody, is a type 1 interferon (INF) receptor antagonist that inhibits a key protein in the immune system called the IFNAR receptor. It is the only available treatment targeting the type I interferon receptor IFNAR and inhibiting signals from all types I interferons.
Dr. Richard Furie, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Northwell Health, New York, US and a principal investigator in the SAPHNELO™ clinical development program, said: Today’s approval of anifrolumab represents a big step forward for the entire lupus community. Physicians will now be able to offer an effective new treatment that has produced significant improvements in overall disease activity while reducing corticosteroid use.”
SAPHNELO™ is administered every four weeks via infusion therapy. Complete administration takes approximately 30 minutes. Wasatch Infusion offers SAPHNELO™ and provides therapy in private infusion suites in any of our four clinics throughout Utah.
Consult with your physician to decide if SAPHNELO™ is right for you.
Wasatch Infusion is open for business and committed to the health and well-being of our patients. COVID-19 has prompted us to pay close attention to our processes and procedures that are in the best interest of our staff and patients, especially those who are immunodeficient.
Wasatch Infusion has the following COVID RELATED safety measures throughout all of our facilities:
Employees are required to report COVID-19 exposure or symptoms immediately and must quarantine until they test negative
All employees and guests are expected to wear masks in all of our clinics and public areas
Hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves are available for all employees and guests at all times
Our electronic intake system is sanitized after every use
Each one of our private suites is sanitized after every patient visit
Additional facility sanitization is done by after-hours cleaning crews
Wasatch Infusion urges all patients who may have been exposed to, or are showing signs of COVID-19 to contact their physician or the Utah Health Department immediately and not enter our facility.
We continue to recommend all patients, employees, and visitors to:
Get vaccinated if possible
Practice proper hygiene, including frequent hand washing and sanitizing
Wear a mask in public areas
Please reschedule your appointment if you have Flu, Cold, or COVID like symptoms
Keeping appropriate quarantine and social distances when and where applicable
Follow recommended national guidelines per the CDC
Follow local governmental suggestions and mandates per the State of Utah
n addition, we continue to monitor COVID and its other variants like DELTA. For more information visit the CDC or Utah Health Department websites or call the Salt Lake Health Department at 385-468-4100. As always, our expertly trained clinicians and intake professionals are here to assist if you have any questions about your infusion therapy needs.
Wasatch Infusion opened the doors to its fourth infusion clinic in Utah. Visitors are welcome to enjoy tours to view one of the most ergonomically designed, safe, and technologically advanced infusion centers in the country and relish the beautiful spa-like environment during its open house on Tuesday, June 29th.
The exclusively private suites promote a patient-focused experience where people can receive medical and wellness infusions under close medical supervision, climate control, adjustable lighting, an array of beverage and food choices, and multiple entertainment options.
The state-of-the-art nursing station allows for a full view of patient rooms, and the clinic employs state-of-the-art equipment for the preparation and storage of medications and supplies.
Wasatch Infusion continues to be the premiere infusion center and is excited to begin serving the area in and around Southern Utah.
Wasatch Infusion Hosts Open House Tuesday, June 29th
Wasatch Infusion celebrates new location in St. George, UT with ribbon-cutting and open house event
What: Wasatch Infusion Ribbon Cutting and Open House Celebration
When: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Open House: 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Ribbon Cutting: 11 a.m.
Where: Wasatch Infusion 295 South 1470 East Suite 101 St. George, UT 84790
Take a tour of the technologically-advanced facility and enjoy complimentary light refreshments with the Wasatch Infusion team. Learn the aspects of I.V. therapy and the cost savings involved versus hospital treatment.
About Wasatch Infusion
Wasatch Infusion has been serving the needs of patients and their physicians since 2010. They provide I.V. therapy for an array of medical conditions. They infuse specialty medications, antibiotics, and also provide wellness infusions. They also provide other infusion-related services like PICC line insertion, therapeutic phlebotomy, and I.V. line care. The clinic is open 365 days a year.
Wasatch Infusion offers wellness infusions made up of vitamins and minerals, providing relief and protection for just about anything. The variety of IV therapy options is guaranteed to deliver results based on your personal needs and goals.
Overall Wellness
Age and other health factors can cause your metabolism to slow down. Wasatch Infusion offers various supplements to support your metabolism and balance your nutrition, including a general Multivitamin Formula for general wellness and a special blend of B12 vitamins with energy-boosting properties. Added benefits of these concoctions include increased mental clarity and protection from environmental stressors.
Enhancement and Recovery
Our Performance Blend is an effective supplement to training and recovery before or after a sports competition, marathon, or any physically demanding event. This blend assists with energy and can enhance performance beforehand, or help with muscle and tissue repair afterward.
Skin and Beauty Care
Hydration therapies are restorative and can give your system a reset, whether your diet is less than balanced or you need extra fluid after a night out with friends. Our hydration solutions quickly deliver a combo of vitamin C, niacin, and other vitamins and minerals to keep you feeling fresh.
Fight wrinkles and acne naturally with the Beauty Blend infusion. This mix of vitamins includes biotin and promotes a healthy glow from the inside out.
Amino acids combine with vitamins and minerals in our Weight Loss Booster, which also helps increase metabolic function. This infusion is designed to assist with burning fat and energizing all those systems in your body, helping to stave off extra pounds.
Immunity Protection
A strong immune system is a concern for everyone, especially in the winter and during allergy seasons. Our immunity infusions contain vitamin C and zinc to defend against the various illnesses that threaten the immune system. These infusions were created to improve general wellbeing, alleviating allergies, fatigue, or even asthma.
Wasatch Infusion has locations in Murray, Tooele, and Layton. Visit us today to receive the infusion that’s right for you.
Check out our very own Charlie Schadewald on KSL TV’s Studio 5 talking about infusions and their benefits. And here’s the logo for Studio 5 to use as the image.
Infusion therapy is a fluid medication that is delivered intravenously. Various types of fluid medications and supplements are available, offering regenerative vitamins and minerals. Whether your goal is added immune support, hydration, boosting your mood, pain management, or strengthening your skin, there is an infusion that is sure to be a perfect fit.
Medications available through infusion therapy include biologics for reducing joint pain and inflammation, antibiotics, antivirals, even chemotherapy.
Where do I get an infusion?
Infusions are commonly administered at hospitals, clinics and infusion centers. Outpatient infusion centers are a more convenient option and have become more widely available, offering a more individualized, safe, relaxing and painless experience. These centers are independent from hospitals and are operated on their own terms, albeit with strict health regulations and requirements, with patient safety as a priority. Infusion centers accept most insurance plans and are often a lower-cost option for your medication or supplement.
How do I get the medication?
These supplements and medications are administered intravenously. Most infusion centers employ the latest technology and equipment for a rejuvenating and virtually painless experience.
Why choose an infusion center over a hospital?
In general, outpatient infusion centers are preferred by patients over hospitals or other medical clinics because patients receive a more personalized experience and lower-cost medications. Infusion centers were created with the idea that the comfort of the patient should be at the forefront of the infusion experience. In a hospital setting, a patient receiving intravenous medication is typically surrounded by other patients and various hospital workers, which can be a health concern during winter months, due to viruses and other illnesses floating around. Privacy is also paramount at infusion centers and patients have the space to relax while receiving their medication.
Why Wasatch Infusion?
Wasatch Infusion is a leader in the industry. We take pride in our team’s ability to ensure your comfort. Our staff is friendly and informed, creating a tailormade-experience to meet the specific needs of each patient at the right time, every time. We offer those little extras that make all the difference, such as private suites, large leather recliners, flatscreen TVs, and a variety of snacks and beverages to choose from. Our dedication to keeping costs low is unmatched, and we offer payment plans to fit the varying needs of each patient.
Many of our patients have struggled with finding the best way to treat their conditions. Most patients do not try IV therapy as a first treatment, but rather, along with their physicians, find that their original medication regime is not working satisfactorily. Doctors typically prescribe oral medications before considering infusions. Often, multiple oral medications are tested with poor results, and sometimes the medication effectiveness dulls over time. At this point, the physician, along with the patient, turn to IV therapy. And, well, we take it from there. There are several benefits to IV treatment over oral medications, some of which are:
More personalized treatment options.
Higher absorption rate than oral medications.
More extended periods of medication efficacy.
Professional medication administration and,
Monitoring by healthcare professionals during your treatment.
Cost effectiveness.
More personalized treatment options result in fewer complications and faster results. Most pills don’t account for genetics, age, existing conditions, and other relevant factors that may affect the treatment. A bottle of pills does not know your unique history and may not provide the results you hoped.
Oral medication is digested in the stomach and permeated through the intestinal wall, but IV treatments are injected right into your bloodstream. Bloodstream administration allows for quicker, more effective absorption. Absorption via the GI tract can also be affected by other factors, including the food we eat and other medications. A lower absorption rate also means that you may be required to take more medication to see results, which can be difficult for your stomach and digestive system. IV treatments administer a more consistent and effective treatment without running the risk of any “gut” reactions.
Additionally, infusion treatments are very often effective for longer periods, taking the stress off patients when remembering to take medication. Stand-alone infusion centers have an array of scheduling opportunities, and Wasatch Infusion is open 365 days a year, often with extended hours for convenient scheduling, so forgetting medication is no longer an issue for patients.
Infusion centers employ highly trained IV staff, providing expert IV treatment and monitoring throughout your treatment to ensure proper and safe care. Additionally, they have access to latest technologies to reduce pain and offer more comfort during treatments.
Cost often causes hesitation for patients when it comes to infusion centers. It should be said that oral medication is not necessarily cheaper than IV medication. More and more often, insurance companies are covering infusion treatment and allowing a less expensive co-pay. As more and more pharmaceutical manufacturers are developing biologics and infusion medications, the cost does not outweigh healthcare and patients’ benefits.
Wasatch Infusion is dedicated to providing better, more affordable treatments in a comfortable, safe, and private environment. We understand that the patient’s treatment journey may not necessarily begin with IV therapy. Still, we promise to provide our patients’ best infusion experience as they seek health and wellness.
Wasatch Infusion has created a patient-focused treatment experience and is changing the healthcare sector as we know it. Patients are able to receive quicker, more private, comfortable, and specialized infusions. This type of experience is possible through an expertly-trained infusion staff. Infusion centers are also able to provide this new level of care while still cutting costs, which means a cheaper, better experience for the patient. This type of experience and care should also be reflected in the healthcare system.
It’s not usual for a medical treatment to be described as “spa-like”; and, that is the goal of Wasatch Infusion. Stephanie Dupree, Lead APRN for Wasatch Infusion, says “Many insurance plans will not pay for home health care, but an in-office infusion is likely to be covered. If you can’t receive your infusion from home, you can trust that you will be greeted with all of the comforts of home at an infusion center.” Those comforts include a comfortable chair for you to receive your infusion in, snacks, television, and even a blanket to keep you warm. The most comfortable aspect is knowing that there is an expertly-trained staff there to take care of you.
One big difference you will see at Wasatch Infusion is the private rooms. This isn’t just a measure for comfort, but for patient safety. According to Dupree, rooms are thoroughly cleaned after each use. Many hospitals infusions are administered with, at most, a sheet separating you from another patient and a full waiting room of people in line behind you. For immunocompromised patients, this can be a problem. Wasatch infusion has a patient limit as well as a fast and efficient intake staff that will get your infusion started with little to no wait. When your doctor calls in the order, Wasatch Infusion can get you in almost immediately because infusions are their specialty.
As far as the industry goes, infusion centers are making their mark. Many professionals in the medical field have begun to create more specialized infusion treatments, pushing the industry further into the future of healing. Infusion centers utilize these revolutionary treatments coupled with the latest infusion technologies. Wasatch Infusion also has a nurse practitioner in every office for every infusion in order to ensure the highest quality of care. The efforts of infusion centers show how the healthcare sector can continuously grow and advance through better patient care and treatment. Wasatch Infusion has always and will always focus on healing and do so by caring about every patient. There has been a long demand for better options for healthcare, and infusion centers help provide a solution.
Infusion centers were created for making IV infusions an easier, more accessible, and enjoyable experience. In the past, the only option for infusion therapy was a hospital. Fortunately, today, the option of a stand-alone infusion center is available, and that opportunity poses many benefits. Some of those benefits may include:
Comfort
Ease of scheduling
Efficiency and accessibility
Expertly trained infusion staff
Cost-effectiveness
Since infusion centers are not affiliated with a hospital, they are able to provide a more comfortable environment including private suites, reclining chairs, refreshments, multiple viewing options, WiFi access and/or blankets. Patients enjoy ample space, seclusion, and comfort, not a bay of beds or chairs, surrounded by strangers with unknown illnesses.
“When you go to the ER, there are typically many sick people and you don’t know what they may have. Since my condition is auto immune, I have to be aware of that,” said Donna L., a long-time infusion center patient.
Unlike hospitals, an infusion center allows for ease of scheduling. Since they are dedicated exclusively to offering infusion therapy, every chair is available and dedicated to their IV patients. Most centers have broad operating hours, and many allow same-day appointments. They work closely with physicians and hospital staff to accommodate patients promptly.
According to Donna L., “You wait for sometimes hours to be seen at a hospital. Here [at an infusion center], you are seated in a private, sanitized room within a few minutes.”
An additional benefit of exclusive focus with an infusion center, like Wasatch Infusion, is their dedicated, expert staff. All medical staff focus solely on IV therapy, PICC, midline, and dual lumen lines, as well as catheter insertion, therapeutic phlebotomy, and port access and flushes. With this hyper-focused model, every staff member is expertly trained to treat patients. Patients can more readily and easily communicate their needs and level of comfort, while staff are able to more closely monitor one-on-one with their patients.
“An outpatient setting is so much different than a hospital. Patients don’t have anxiety because they are in a more relaxed environment where they can receive medical care without feeling like they have no control over anything that’s happening with them,” said nurse practitioner Julie Bassargh.
Probably one of the most important benefits to an infusion center is the cost of care. Not only is it more cost-effective to the patient, but it is also cost-effective for insurance companies. When you consider the 5-year trend of a 65 percent increase in commercial PMPM and 40 percent increase in Medicare PMPM, the cost is an important factor in treatment, and infusion centers are a welcome opportunity to decrease costs.
Source: Magellan RX Medical Pharmacy Trend Report 2019
An ICORE Healthcare report in 2010 noted that infusion center costs are, on average, 50 percent lower than the same treatment provided at a hospital. And according to a Metro Infusion report, the average cost of a hospital stay is $1,500 per day without medications, whereas the per-day cost of an IV center is $150 with medications.
While cost is an important aspect of determining healthcare decisions, gone are the days of limited choices when it comes to a person’s health and well-being. Hospitals may offer the same medication as an infusion center, but there are multiple benefits to receiving an IV treatment at an office-based infusion center. It’s an easy choice for patients. If comfort, ease, and cost-effectiveness are a priority, an infusion center provides all of this and more.
