Question

Hemodialysis (also known as “dialysis”) is a common treatment for patients with kidney disease. In the United States, more than 468,000 patients are on dialysis (NIH, 2018). Since 1993, hospitalization rates related to the process of dialysis has risen between 47-87% (CDC, 2018).

Many patients seek dialysis care at outpatient facilities that are not inspected as frequently as other healthcare facilities, like nursing homes and hospitals. For example, in California, kidney dialysis clinics are only inspected on average once every six years.

Should kidney dialysis centers be held to the same safety standards as other healthcare facilities?

Are current regulations for dialysis centers strong enough?

Should more frequent inspections be required?

Are there other ways to reduce the risk of infection for dialysis patients?

Answer 1

Dialysis of the kidney is the common treatment of the kidney in most of the patients. This is considered to be a very effective step in the kidney treatment.

As it is well known that during the hemodialysis there are huge risks of infection.

Hence it is highly desired to maintain the safety standards in the dialysis clinics. The reason behind such huge risk of infection is that most of the patients have the kidney dialysis even at home or in nursing home as a quick action. Thus they lack a sense of better hygienic conditions or the safeguards, which should be in actual.

Hence it is very required and supposed to be mandatory to maintain desired safety standards more than the other healthcare facilities.

As per the current regulations of the US clinics are only inspected on average once every six years which is not enough. There should be more frequent inspections at least once in year.

Although the current regulations are providing the base for thus safety standards but still there is need of amendments in the guidelines to maintain the desired level of the safety standards in the dialysis clinics in this global scenario.

At the same time there should be proper training of the associated staffs regarding the reduction of associated infections. At the same time there should be the counseling of the patients and related family members regarding the maintenance of the hygiene during the whole course of the dialysis.

Thus by considering the above discussed factors we can reduce the high risks of the infections during the heamodialysis of the patients.