Here’s my latest article on McKnight’s Long-Term Care News:
Creating a dialysis-friendly facility
Studies show there will be an increasing number of people on dialysis in the coming years. It’s likely many of them will be in long-term care.
There is much that can be done to improve the quality of life for these individuals and to showcase your facility as dialysis-friendly. Unfortunately, many providers are not doing all they can to help these people, or boost their own business operations, for that matter.
New diagnoses of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in residents should prompt a team discussion with them and their families about wishes for end-of-life care (see Dialysis: Gauging its need, and how to reduce its stress). Some may prefer to avoid dialysis, but many of the newly diagnosed will choose to begin dialysis treatments. In addition, most facilities already have residents committed to the ongoing process of dialysis.
To understand how to best improve care, let’s consider what life is currently like for many hemodialysis patients in long-term care.
A week in the life …
Most people undergoing hemodialysis leave their LTC facility three days a week in order to receive treatments that last for about 3 ½ to 4 hours. In the case of James, for example, he is awakened at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for a 9 a.m. pickup for a 10 a.m. dialysis appointment. He spends the day dozing on and off in front of the television while hooked up to the dialysis machine. By 2 p.m., he’s disconnected from the machine and has a 2:30 p.m. pickup time that sometimes doesn’t happen until 3 p.m. He’s back at the facility by 4 p.m.
Not surprisingly, James and other residents are frequently fatigued on the days in between treatments, making it less likely they’re able to participate in rehab or in the life of the LTC community.
A typical dialysis patient has interacted for hours with an entirely different staff that generally has little contact with the facility care team. They’ve been on an ambulette dealing with various personalities in close quarters (and possibly in traffic or bad weather) and it’s likely that lunch was a renal diet sandwich eaten while being dialyzed.
Considered from a “patient experience” perspective, the bar is set pretty low and there’s a lot we can do to raise it.
For the entire article, visit:
Creating a dialysis-friendly facility
