Dialysis in nursing homes

The number of geriatric end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients in the United States is increasing disproportionately to other age groups on dialysis. Thus there will be more dialysis patients that will require the assistance of nursing homes or extended care facilities. Nursing homes may be beneficial for the geriatric patient in terms of social and physical rehabilitation. Many of these facilities, however, may not take care of or may not have the capacity to adequately care for dialysis patients. Such patients have a higher rate of peritonitis when on peritoneal dialysis (PD) and have higher mortality rates on hemodialysis (HD) or PD compared to similar dialysis patients in the community. Cooperation and communication between the dialysis center and the nursing home, given the complex management issues involved in the care of these patients, are essential. One promising approach to the care of elderly dialysis patients is an integration of nursing home and dialysis unit. Although another approach could be to more fully utilize the services of adult day care centers, this has proven logistically difficult and has not been reported to be successful since it was first suggested more than a decade ago.