Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (“the company” or “Fresenius Medical Care”), the world’s largest provider of dialysis products and services, announced today that the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) officially recognized the company’s Patient Safety Organization (PSO). The certification by the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the first for a dialysis organization, furthers Fresenius Medical Care’s mission of continuously improving patient safety and health care quality.

The purpose of a PSO is to establish a framework by which doctors and other health care providers may voluntarily report information to PSOs, on a privileged and confidential basis, to collect and analyze patient safety events. Regulations outline how the PSO may utilize data and act as a resource for health care providers to understand and minimize the risks and hazards in delivering patient care. A PSO’s workforce must have expertise in analyzing patient safety events, such as the identification, analysis, prevention, and reduction or elimination of the risks and hazards associated with the delivery of patient care.

Michael Lazarus, M.D., director of the Fresenius Medical Care Patient Safety Organization: “Each of our more than 1,800 kidney dialysis clinics in the U.S. has a Quality Improvement Committee that investigates the root causes of all patient adverse events, with the objective of continuous improvement in patient safety and quality of care. Our companywide Patient Safety Organization performs a more global root cause analysis of aggregate data. We do this to maximize safe conditions in our facilities and to provide the safest dialysis treatments possible. When we find unsafe situations or processes that lead to errors, it is important to change our approach and to educate the staff as well as the patients about any unsafe conditions so that together we can eliminate them.“

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Fresenius 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 1.89 million individuals worldwide. Through its network of 2,757 dialysis clinics in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa, Fresenius Medical Care provides dialysis treatment to 214,648 patients around the globe. Fresenius Medical Care also is the world's leading provider of dialysis products such as hemodialysis machines, dialyzers and related disposable products.

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This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements due to certain factors, including changes in business, economic and competitive conditions, regulatory reforms, foreign exchange rate fluctuations, uncertainties in litigation or investigative proceedings, and the availability of financing. These and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA's reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA does not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking statements in this release.

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