DaVita Responds to COVID

Early in August 2021, DaVita CEO Javier Rodriguez was assessing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his firm, which provided life-sustaining kidney dialysis to roughly 240,000 people. Effective infection control practices and information sharing had ensured that no COVID case had yet been transmitted to patients or staff on DaVita premises. A strong corporate culture had fostered the commitment among DaVita staff and management to each other and to their patients that had enabled their successful collective response. But 18 months into the pandemic, unprecedented staff attrition, exhaustion, and the now rapidly spreading Delta variant had Rodriguez and other DaVita managers concerned that the traits that had sustained the firm to date were no longer enough.