SNF good setting for hemodialysis: study

Individuals with end stage renal disease (ESRD) who receive daily home hemodialysis in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) have generally improved health status, lower monthly mortality rates and significantly longer median survival (50 months versus 30 months) compared with those who receive conventional, three-times-weekly dialysis.

That’s according to results of a large epidemiologic research study that were presented in a poster at the recent National Kidney Foundation spring clinical meetings. Researcher Alex Yang, MD, used a database from Affiliated Dialysis Centers (ADC), an independent, Illinois-based dialysis provider of home hemodialysis services to those with ESRD who live in SNFs. Xelay Acumen, a strategy and medical data analytics firm, independently collected and analyzed the data from almost 4,000 individuals tracked over a six-year follow-up period.

“The ADC database is a unique and extremely important research tool which allows us to study a large population of ESRD patients on dialysis in the nursing home setting and test hypotheses about optimal care and outcomes for this at-risk patient population,” Yang says. “The improvements in health status, and particularly in overall survival, in patients treated with daily home dialysis in this study are provocative and suggest the need for a prospective outcomes study.”

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