Sensing Savvy

End stage renal disease is increasing by five percent per year in the United States, and in 2014 over 100,000 people began treatment for ESRD. As the amount of ESRD patients increase, so does the need for dialysis clinics to help treat them. 

Attracting these new ESRD patients to your dialysis clinic and retaining the ones you have has several benefits. Lower patient turnover has been associated with increased profitability, happier staff and lowered risk of patient treatment errors.

But attracting and retaining patients is often easier said than done. Here are a few tips for attracting and retaining patients to your dialysis center.

American Renal Associates Reports 10 Percent Increase in Operating Revenues in Q1 

Bill restricting third-party premium payment for patients with ESRD wins California Senate committee approval

The California Senate Committee on Health recently approved the California SB 1156 bill, sponsored by Sen. Connie Leyva. SB 1156 prevents third-party organizations, such as the American Kidney Fund, from helping patients on dialysis pay for more expensive, commercial health plan premiums. 

DaVita’s Net Q4 Net Income Increased

Most hemodialysis patients aren’t like Lori Clark. While most patients take the usual steps to stay healthy and attend their hemodialysis appointments, Lori goes a step further — she investigates and experiments based on what she learns at her dialysis sessions.

While that might seem odd, doing so has helped her take better care of her vascular access. She couldn’t do it, however, without the help of Transonic’s HD03 monitor, which her clinic uses to monitor its patients’ vascular access flow.

You may think that improving treatment for your dialysis patients is solely your responsibility — but the patient experience is a two-way street. And in a field where nurse burnout is a high risk and bloodstream infections are the leading cause of patient hospitalization, it pays to take a closer look at how your dialysis patients can become more empowered to manage their healthcare.

The first step to opening up the road is changing the way you see your patients. Kidney patient advocate David Rosenbloom challenges the assumption that dialysis patients are all victims receiving end-of-life care:

In Patients with Type 2 Diabetes, BMI can be a Predictor of Developing ESRD

After a five year follow up, researchers found 5.8 percent of patients classified as obesity grade two and 7.8 percent of patients classified as obesity grade three had developed a “major renal event” compared to 4.2 percent of patients classified as normal weight. They also found: “Every additional unit of BMI over 25 kg/m2 increased the risk of major renal events by 4 (1-6)%.”

Source: Nephrology News & Issues  

Researchers found that CKD patients may get some medicinal benefits from consuming caffeine. They found that those who consumed higher amounts of caffeine—between 206.5 to 1,378.5 milligrams daily—cut their mortality risk by nearly a quarter compared to those who consumed lower amounts.

Protecting patients from bloodstream infections (BSIs) should be a top priority for any dialysis clinic. Dialysis patients are at high-risk for infections as the bloodstream is being repeatedly exposed for access, and patients’ immune systems are compromised.

Dialysis patients with central lines experience an estimated 37,000 BSIs per year, with 1 in 4 of those cases resulting in death. Additionally, patients are hospitalized for infection to the tune of $23,000. Nephrology experts agree that this potentially deadly and costly BSI problem is preventable when dialysis clinics follow some important guidelines.

DaVita Profits Decline 15 Percent for Q3

The loss can be attributed to higher than expected medical costs and the underperforming managed care business. Net loss for the quarter was $214 million. As of the end of September, DaVita provided services to 218,200 patients.