With health care delivery systems changing at breakneck speed, it takes forward-thinking providers to keep pace. Among them are skilled nursing facilities and dialysis providers who together are significantly improving the quality of life for elderly patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD.) Patients who reside in skilled nursing facilities are now having dialysis therapy brought directly to them. Dialyze Direct has teamed up with Greystone Health Management to provide a seamless care model that promotes coordination of care and cooperation among many caregivers.
The point-of-care approach to dialysis focuses on staff-assisted hemodialysis treatments that are shorter and more frequent so as to provide a gentler and more stable treatment than conventional dialysis therapy. Shorter, more frequent dialysis is designed to bring a patient’s body fluid volume much closer to normal; something that conventional, three times a week treatment has generally not been able to do well. This model of care is particularly advantageous for those individuals who suffer from a high number of cardiovascular comorbidities and/or physical frailty.
Point of care, gentler dialysis means that patients recover more quickly from a treatment, demonstrate improved blood pressure control, require fewer medications, and are admitted and re-admitted to the hospital less frequently than comparable patients receiving conventional therapy. Point-of-care dialysis also ensures that patients do not miss meals, physical therapy sessions or social events that they otherwise would with off-site treatments.
Dialyze Direct’s highly-trained team of nurses, LPN’s and technicians coordinate patient care with the clinical teams at Greystone’s Wilton Manors Health and Rehab in in Ft. Lauderdale, North Beach Health and Rehab in North Miami, and Unity Health and Rehab in Miami. Dialysis nurses liaison with dietary staff on dialysis-specific needs and with social workers on psychosocial-related issues. In addition, medical directors communicate with all medical providers including the patient’s primary care physician, nephrologist and other specialists.
In order to improve the quality of life for the ESRD population with more complex medical problems, advances in technology and refinements in coordination of care will need to continue through progressive efforts like those by Dialyze Direct and Greystone Healthcare Management.
