Patient Survival: What affects patient survival?

September 20, 2009 by admin

There are many things that affect how long patients on dialysis live. A facility may be able to control some of these things, but not others. Factors that a facility may be able to control:

• How well it cares for its patients, like changing a patient's treatment when necessary, and making sure the patient is on dialysis for the full treatment time.
• How well it makes sure that its patients get all the treatments prescribed by the doctor, and checks blood test results and gives certain medications.
• How well it teaches its patients to take care of themselves.

Factors that a facility may not be able to control:

• Whether or not the patient already has other health conditions like heart problems, or cancer.
• Unexpected death of a patient. For instance, from complications from surgery.

A patient choosing not to follow the prescribed treatment, even after the facility has educated him/her. For instance, a patient refusing to finish a dialysis session, not taking medications as prescribed, or not following his/her proper diet.