The Vision 1999

In this edition of Vision I would like to share with you portions of a letter from a patient that I hope brings as much concern to you as it did the Network office. We deal with a vulnerable population who rely on the dialysis staff for their needs. It is paramount that a patient gets the care to ensure the highest quality of life possible. An essential part of that care is patient education. It is through education that a patient becomes more knowledgeable about their disease and the treatment of their disease. Studies have shown that the patients who understand and participate in the treatment of their ESRD do better, have better quality of life and decreased complications.

If this is the case, why would any center not want to strive to make patient education a major part of the treatment process? The Network does have a number of exemplary facilities that do an excellent job of addressing the needs of patient education. The problem is we have some facilities that do not educate and prompt letters from patients such as this: “The nature of kidney disease is that you have question after question to put it all together. There should be education times but the center does not make this a priority. It puts it on the patient to catch all these people. I find this highly uncomfortable and stressful, worse than the disease itself. Once when I asked the doctor a question, he told me he was shocked that a patient was asking questions as most patients never ask anything. I was shocked that he said this. This is how bad my center is in the education aspect. And as I said, no one wants to make appointments because they are so busy they don’t want to give 1 on 1 education.”

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