Water treatment for hemodialysis: ensuring patient safety

Patient safety has become an important focus of the Institute of Medicine and the medical community. Although hemodialysis is a routine therapy, it is nonetheless a complex procedure where errors can occur. In particular, errors related to water quality can lead to patient injury and to increased medical costs. Using the Institute of Medicine report on errors in medicine as a basis, this article discusses previously published incidents of patient injury related to water quality in terms of the types of errors that occurred. Epidemiologic techniques provide a framework to identify, correct, and possibly avert these types of errors in the future. While the ultimate responsibility for ensuring water quality rests with the medical director of the hemodialysis unit, patient safety should be a concern of all members of the nephrology community.