Profile of admissions to an acute dialysis care unit

The profile of admissions to an acute dialysis care facility of the National University Hospital Renal Centre, Singapore was studied in an attempt to identify the needs of these patients so that admissions may be possibly reduced. All patients above the age of 18 years who were admitted to the dialysis centre in the National University Hospital for dialysis between 1 Jan 2000 and 31 Mar 2000 inclusive were studied. A total of 124 patients were studied. Almost all the patients had end stage renal failure. The commonest cause of end stage renal failure was diabetic nephropathy (58.8%). There were a total of 157 admissions. Most of the admissions were associated with end stage renal failure (96%). Vascular access problems caused 40% of all admissions and 68% of all multiple admissions. The data suggest that a dialysis facility in a multidisciplinary acute hospital needs to meet the requirements of mainly patients who are already in end stage renal failure, those who have vascular access problems and those who have diabetes.