Northwest Renal Network’s monthly patient flyer is now posted on our website at http://www.nwrenalnetwork.org/P/M/Monthly.htm. The featured topic for March is Just A Minute… – on not shaving time off of your dialysis treatments. These flyers are designed for posting in the facility waiting area, and for distribution to patients and family members. Contact our Patient Services Director, Lisa Hall (lhall@nw16.esrd.net) if you have questions or ideas for future monthly topics.
The NW Chapter of the NKF Council of Nephrology Social Workers will hold their Spring 2014 Educational Symposium May 22-23, 2014 in Issaquah, Washington. Topics will include Transplant education and counseling, “Road Back to Life” mentoring for all affected by CKD, “Brains Under Stress,” and “System Targeted Interventions” for integrating behavioral, cognitive, mindfulness, and clinical interventions into daily clinical practice. For complete details, see http://www.nwrenalnetwork.org/N/CNSWSpring2014.pdf.
The latest Network Consumer News has been mailed to facilities for distribution to patients. If you haven’t gotten one, ask your facility, or contact the Network (http://www.nwrenalnetwork.org/contact.htm). This issue includes an introduction to the Network’s new Executive Director Stephanie Hutchinson, to our new A-Z Patient Education Resource Library, to the Medical Education Institute’s new Decision Aid to Match Dialysis Options with Lifestyle, and how to locate home dialysis training. There’s also a Word Search puzzle, and a large print version of the newsletter. You can find online copies of all of this at http://www.nwrenalnetwork.org/P/NCN.htm.
Most Medicare beneficiaries should avoid enrolling into ACA (“Obamacare”) Marketplace plans. It is important to understand who should enroll into ACA plans and how these plans affect people with Medicare. The Medicare Rights Center will present a free webinar on How Medicare Works with Marketplace Insurance on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. See http://www.medicarerights.org/free-webinar-for-professionals-how-medicare-works-with-marketplace-insurance/ for more information and registration instructions. If you can’t make it on March 25, register anyway, and when it is ready in two weeks they will email you a link to the session recording.
A list of CMS-approved ICH CAHPS® Survey vendors is posted on the ICH CAHPS® website at https://ichcahps.org/GeneralInformation/ApprovedSurveyVendors.aspx. The ESRD QIP for CY2014 requires that each in-center hemodialysis facility serving 30 or more adult patients during 2013 contract with a CMS-approved survey vendor to administer the 2014 ICH CAHPS® Survey on its behalf. See https://ichcahps.org/GeneralInformation/Announcements/tabid/269/EntryId/191/Default.aspx for more information and registration instructions. Qualifying facilities must register and name their survey vendor on the ICH CAHPS® website before July 31, 2014 to receive QIP credit for participating in the ICH CAHPS Survey national implementation.
The Medical Education Institute (MEI) had announced that the 5th edition of The Core Curriculum for the Dialysis Technician: A Comprehensive Review of Hemodialysis can now be found on the MEI website at http://meiresearch.org/core_curriculum. The manual is critical for technicians preparing for certification, and is also useful background for nurses and other technical staff who need to learn about dialysis. It has become an industry standard for training dialysis patient-care technicians.
Print copies and an electronic version of the Core Curriculum are available for $25 plus $6 shipping for a print copy, and $9 for the PDF. Sales will help support future editions of the Core Curriculum so that it can remain an accurate and current resource for dialysis technicians.
MEI requests that other organizations promptly remove unauthorized copies of the Core Curriculum from their websites, especially earlier editions that do not contain the most up-to-date information. MEI welcomes links from other websites to http://meiresearch.org/core_curriculum.
The FDA has announced a recall of the Hospira Hemostat Dual Channel Plum Set because when used by itself for gravity feed, without being attached to the Plum infusion pump (as intended), it can over-deliver blood products. For details, see http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm389543.htm.
