Earnings per share Earnings per share - Reconciliation of numberators and denominators used to calculate basic and diluted earnings per share (Details) - USD ($) $ / shares in Units, $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2020	Mar. 31, 2019
Numerators:
Net income from continuing operations attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 229,613	$ 120,254
Net income from discontinued operations attributable to DaVita Inc.	9,980	29,035
Net income (loss) attributable to DeVita Inc. for earnings per share calculation	$ 239,593	$ 149,289
Weighted average shares outstanding during period	124,902,000	166,388,000
Assumed incremental shares from stock plans	1,993,000	393,000
Weighted average shares for diluted earnings per share calculation	126,894,847	166,780,657
Basic:
Basic net income from continuing operations per share	$ 1.84	$ 0.72
Basic net income (loss) from discontinued operations per share	0.08	0.18
Basic net income per share attributable to DaVita Inc.	1.92	0.90
Diluted:
Diluted net income from continuing operations per share	1.81	0.72
Diluted net income from discontinued operations per share	0.08	0.18
Diluted net income per share attributable to DaVita Inc.	$ 1.89	$ 0.90
Anti-dilutive stock-settled awards excluded from calculation	3,207,000	6,150,000

Income Loss From Continuing Operations Attributable to Parent Available To Common Stockholders Basic.

No definition available.

Name:	dva_IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsAttributabletoParentAvailableToCommonStockholdersBasic
Namespace Prefix:	dva_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Securities (including those issuable pursuant to contingent stock agreements) that could potentially dilute basic earnings per share (EPS) or earnings per unit (EPU) in the future that were not included in the computation of diluted EPS or EPU because to do so would increase EPS or EPU amounts or decrease loss per share or unit amounts for the period presented.