Deficiencies in delivered hemodialysis therapy due to missed and shortened treatments.
The frequency of missed and shortened hemodialysis treatments was assessed in a randomly selected sample of 860 ESRD patients from 54 dialysis units. Data were collected for three sequential 4-week periods covering 28,108 treatments. During each of these 4-week periods, 5.1% to 7.6% of patients missed at least one treatment, 26.8% to 32.3% of patients had at least one shortened treatment, and 6.6% to 7.9% of patients missed 10% or more of their prescribed therapy. Over the entire 12-week period, 50% of patients had either missed or shortened treatments (or both). Missed and shortened treatments are prevalent enough to account for clinically important deficiencies in delivered dialysis for a significant number of patients.
Sherman
R A
RA
Department of Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick 08903.
Cody
R P
RP
Matera
J J
JJ
Rogers
M E
ME
Solanchick
J C
JC
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016312:Treatment Refusal