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A monthly meeting could improve kidney dialysis treatments

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, November 23, 2004

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Here's some good news--patients who are treated by healthcare teams, that meet on a monthly basis are more likely to have healthy levels of the blood proteins albumin and hemoglobin. And they are 32% less likely to be admitted to the hospital and 29% less likely to die.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins reached this conclusion in a recent study, which included data collected on 644 dialysis patients being treated at 75 dialysis clinics in 17 states. The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology published the study. It can also be read on the John Hopkins' Web site, http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/welchcenter/.

Neil R. Power, MD, MPH, MBA, senior author of the study and director of Hopkins' Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, indicated that when a patient care teams get together, they allot time to thoroughly assess patient progress, address problems, and tailor strategies. The meeting complements the nephrologist's typical "walk-rounds," a quick patient assessment, which focuses more on urgent issues than an ongoing plan of care.

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