Common concerns among hospital-based dialysis providers

Studies by Alan Collins, MD, and the U.S. Renal Data System have demonstrated that a proper balance of good dialysis therapies, including appropriate use of medications, leads to improved patient outcomes, including lower hospitalization rates and mortality. Additionally, this reduction in hospitalization and increase in patient longevity will improve the financial performance of both hospital-based and freestanding dialysis providers. Good care for the patients is of financial benefit to the dialysis program for both hospital-based and freestanding dialysis facilities. This article highlights many of the challenges facing hospital-based dialyis providers, but it only scratches the surface. Hospital-based programs, while in the minority of dialysis providers, need to incorporate many of the lessons that the freestanding providers have learned. These lessons are not just modification of staffing models and the monitoring of productivity standards; the focus is on improving quality of care and capturing all of the revenue the program is entitled to receive. For hospital-based dialysis programs, improving patient outcomes also improves financial performance.