April's Patient Education "The Dialysis Facility Compare"

Sent to All PAC Advisors, Reps, SMEs, and Members

The Dialysis Facility Compare: How can it help you?

Dialysis Facility Compare was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and provides information on more than 7,000 facilities throughout the United States. It allows patients or caregivers to compare potential dialysis facilities based on the following criteria ⁽¹⁾ :

How well the facility care for their patients
How often the dialysis centers follow best practices
How effective are these facilities in keeping their patients healthy
How patients feel about their healthcare experience at these facilities⁽¹⁾

Dialysis Facility Compare Website

(1)Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. How can Dialysis Facility Compare help you? Find and compare Dialysis Centers| Dialysis Facility Compare. https://www.medicare.gov/dialysisfacilitycompare/#about/what-is-dfc. Published 2019. Accessed April 2019.

How to use the Dialysis Facility CompareWebsite

Step 1

Enter the State, Town or Zip-code that you or your loved one is looking to seek treatment

If the Dialysis Center's Name is known you can type it in under "Dialysis Facility Name"

Step 2

After entering the desired area, the results will appear. It will show the facility's ranking out of 5

Click the button "Add to Compare" to select different facilities

Step 3

Select up to three (3) facilities to do a full comparison.

If a facility was selected by mistake press the Red Button "Remove from Compare" to remove them from the comparison

Step 4

Once the three facilities are selected, scroll up to the top of the page and select the Green Button "Compare Now"

Step 5

After you clicked to compare the facilities, there will be three tabs at the top. The first tab is "General Information" : this answers general questions about the facility. Each facility is line up side by side to allow for a full comparison

Step 6

The tab next is "Survey of Patient Experiences". This tab provides the patient's perspective on their experiences with hemodialysis at the following facilities.

Step 7

The final tab is " Quality of Patient Care". The facilities ranked for Patient's Quality of Care in many areas, including:

-"Avoiding unnecessary transfusion"

-"Preventing blood stream infections"

Click each title to reveal the facility's ranking in that area of care.