"Life is too short. Live and have fun." — shared by Lisa Duffey, In-Center Hemodialysis, Missouri
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Allison Wayment
is the Patient Services Specialist and has been with the Network since May of 2015. Her background is in psychology and she has been working in the mental health field since 2010. Allison assists patients in the resolution of grievances, works with dialysis facilities to help patients continue to get treatment in an outpatient setting and provides support to the Network Patient Advisory Council and Network Patient Representative programs.
If you ever have a question about the Network, please reach out to us at
816-880-9990
.
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The Annual Network Council meeting (Webinar format) is open to Facility Representatives or any facility staff that would like to join. We ask that
at least one representative from each facility
attend.
Date:
Tuesday, July 17
Time:
12:30-1:30 p.m. CT
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Hand Hygiene: Break Down the Barriers
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World Hand Hygiene Day was May 5. Here at the Network office, we celebrated with a Glo-Germ challenge. We hope you found a way to celebrate in your facilities as well.
The sad truth is, even though hand washing saves lives, healthcare workers often skip this vital step in the care they provide.
This article was shared in May as a resource for our Bloodstream Infection Quality Improvement Activity. It addresses the barriers to hand washing and how to overcome them. We hope you find it as powerful as our QIA facilities did.
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Support Groups:
Improving the Quality of Life for Patients and Their Families
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Patient support groups are an effective way to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.
These groups provide emotional support and reduce the feelings of loneliness by offering friendships, valuable information and coping skills. Patients and family members are able to engage in peer-to-peer discussion and share common concerns.
Support groups promote self-management and help patients feel more positive about the care they receive, which leads to fewer missed treatments, hospitalization and illness. Forming and sustaining groups can be challenging.
If you are interested in starting a support group in your facility, try adding information to your new patient welcome packet, hanging a poster, hosting a lobby day or picnic. Patient and staff leadership support are essential to sustainability of the group.
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Depression: The Non-Pharmacological Approach to Treatment
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Research shows that 20-25% of dialysis patients will face depression. Patients struggle with the thought of taking one more pill and confusion about the affects it will have on their body.
Dialysis Clinic, Inc. facilities in Mid-Missouri have taken a non-pharmacological approach to assist their patients suffering from depression.
DCI Jefferson City East and DCI Lake Home Dialysis received a grant from the Missouri Kidney Program to provide their patients with stress balls, exercise bands, emergency preparedness magnets and organizational tools.
Included with these items were exercise band workouts, information on deep breathing and meditation and organizational and emergency preparedness tips.
Other non-pharmacological approaches include: laughter therapy, journaling, art therapy, music therapy, and showing gratitude.
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Decreasing Conflict,
Creating Bridges!
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The Decreasing Dialysis Patient/Provider Conflict (DPC) toolkit is a wonderful tool to help staff manage conflict effectively, improve communication, and increase patient and staff satisfaction.
Conflict is never easy to deal with and the unique characteristics of the dialysis setting can make it even more challenging. The DPC was developed by a national group of dialysis professionals and is recognized as a resource for decreasing involuntary discharges in the ESRD Conditions for Coverage.
The DPC toolkit includes several tools to assist with both staff training and quality improvement. The training aims to decrease patient-provider conflict by building conflict resolution skills, improving communication and increasing understanding of how interactions with patients, their families and other staff may trigger or escalate conflict in the dialysis setting.
To learn more about or to re-visit this resource, check out the
DPC Overview
provided. Click on the following link to
download manual
from the NCC website, or if you would like a hard-copy (with the interactive CD) call the Network at
816-880-9990
.
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Focus on Home Dialysis:
Patients as the Customer
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During the April’s ESRD NCC Home LAN call, Shannon Cook, RN, Fresenius Home Therapy Program Manager in Arizona, presented
Bringing Patients Home
.
She shared the benefits of home dialysis therapies, myths and truths in regards to home dialysis and a best practice of how to redefine patients as our customers.
She discussed that we need to move away from patients dependent on the health care system as a place to get better when sick, but for patients to view the health care system through the eyes of a customer and for them to be actively engaged in seeking the best health care system for them to get better in.
Want to know more about redefining patients as your customer? Click on the presentation link and then share highlights during your next quality improvement and staff meeting.
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Each month the Network shares ideas based upon the "topic of the month" in conjunction with the 2018 My Kidney Calendar. June’s monthly topic in the My Kidney Calendar is “Making My Wishes Known”.
Last month we shared some resources and ideas for patient engagement related to this topic so you could plan ahead.
If you didn’t get a chance to review them or want to see the other topics addressed so far this year, please click on the “Topic of the Month” link.
We encourage you to review the monthly Topic of the Month sheet with your Network Patient Representative and brainstorm ideas on how to best address the topic in your facility. Beat the heat and get a jump start on the challenging issue of fluid management. Check out the
Patient Engagement Showcase
to get some great ideas shared by facilities in our Network for fluid management in the "My Treatment" section.
The Network recognizes that facilities are always working hard to develop and implement creative and engaging activities for their patients, through bulletin boards, games and lobby days to name a few. Please share the great work you are doing through the reporting link offered in the topic sheet.
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To prepare for July, check out the latest topic sheet on "Fluid Matters".
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Patient Navigators & Transplant Coaches
Assist Patients in the Steps to Transplantation
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Heartland Kidney Network is committed to making sure all patients in their four state service area understand the process to receive a kidney transplant.
All dialysis patients have the right to understand if they would benefit from a kidney transplant, and if so, the steps they would need to take to be placed on a transplant centers deceased donor wait list for a kidney and or how to receive a kidney from a living donor.
A good way for dialysis units to assist their patient’s through the steps of a transplant evaluation and to receive a kidney transplant is to have their patients use a
patient navigator
or a
transplant coach
.
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Transplant Quality Improvement Activity (QIA) Learning and Action Network (LAN)
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During the April Transplant Quality Improvement Activity (QIA) Learning and Action Network (LAN) call, participants learned about the role of a patient navigator and how this model can be utilized to create peer-to-peer patient engagement activities to assist patients in working through the process for transplant evaluation, being placed on the national kidney donor wait list and or receiving a living donor kidney.
To find out more about patient navigators,
click here
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Nebraska Medicine and Network collaborate for Transplant Symposium
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Nebraska Medicine collaborated in April with the Network in a Transplant Symposium. This symposium brought together patients, staff from dialysis facilities, and transplant centers to discuss barriers to patients progressing through transplant evaluation to being placed on a kidney wait list and ultimately a kidney transplant.
A best practice shared during the all-day event was for individuals needing a kidney transplant to partner with a transplant coach through the entire kidney transplant process.
The transplant coach could be a family member, friend or an advocate that would participate and offer support in all steps of the transplant evaluation process, be there to assist the individual when a transplantable kidney available and to continue to be a source of support, encouragement after kidney transplant.
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NHSN is the nation’s most widely used healthcare-associated infection tracking system. NHSN provides facilities, states, regions, and the nation with data needed to identify problem areas, measure progress of prevention efforts, and ultimately eliminate healthcare-associated infections.
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REMEMBER:
NHSN Data
Deadlines
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End Stage Renal Disease National Coordinating Center -
Quality Improvement Activity Learning and Action Networks
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The ESRD NCC hosts a series of calls based on topics of the CMS Quality Improvement Activities (QIAs). These include: Blood Stream Infection (BSI), Home Modality, Transplant, and Depression. ALL ESRD facilities will receive invitations to these meetings because improving the lives of dialysis patients in these areas is a global goal. The expectation is that project facilities join these calls but the calls are optional for non-participating facilities. Please also share these calls with your patients.
If you have questions, please call the Network office at
816-880-9990
.
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