Category Archives: Preventative Care

1/10+ January+ Events

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  • January 24, 2024: NKF Navigating Transplant, the first Zoom session in a series of Transplant-focused “Lunch& Learn” Sessions for Dialysis Professionals – Ready, Set, Go… Referring Dialysis Patients for Kidney Transplant Evaluation. Find more information and register to earn 1.0 free CE credits at http://tinyurl.com/NKFreadysetgo. See also the second poster below.

More January+ News and Events

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Mental Health Bulletin Board

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Social workers have shared with the Network that some dialysis patients are reluctant to disclose or discuss their depression or other mental health concerns. One way to address this is to provide psychological education via a mental health-themed bulletin board. The following downloadable patient-focused materials have been reviewed and recommended by ESRD Network 16 advisors as good candidates for a facility Mental Health Bulletin Board:

9/1+ Monthly UCLA Kidney Health Chat

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The UCLA CORE Kidney Health Program will present a FREE Virtual Monthly Chat with Nephrologist Dr. Rastogi and the UCLA CORE Kidney Health Team of Experts at 5pm PT on the first day of every month through January. Topics related to kidney disease and high blood pressure will be discussed, including prevention, diagnosis, management, dialysis, transplantation, and kidney healthy life choices. The usual experts will be joined by the UCLA Circle of CORE kidney patient advocates and support group. These interactive sessions will include opportunities to ask questions. You can also send your questions to COREKidney@mednet.ucla.edu prior to the event. Register at https://uclahs.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GxLIlyDwSmmDssQCvBL0Xw, and find more information at http://www.uclahealth.org/CORE-Kidney/ or 310-954-2692.

More Hot Weather Tips

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Here are some additional resources in advance of this week’s extreme heat in our region:

Cool Tips for Hot Weather, a patient resource developed by Northwest Kidney Centers: https://www.nwkidney.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Nutrition-Tips-Cool-Tips-for-Hot-Weather.pdf or see below.

Preventing Heat-related Illnesses (OHA): https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/Preparedness/Prepare/Pages/PrepareForExtremeHeat.aspx.

Extreme Heat (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/index.html.

Warning Signs and Symptoms of Heat-related Illness (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/warning.html.

Extreme Heat Expected

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The National Weather Service anticipates this weekend to bring record breaking heat to our region with temperatures expected above 100 degrees in multiple locations. The following resources offer tips for patients and providers to use to stay cool during this extreme heat and how to properly manage fluids for those on dialysis. Ways to stay cool:

Networks are required by CMS to track the status of facility operations and patient access to treatment during emergency events. If the operations of your facility, or ability for patients to have access to dialysis are impacted by emergency events, please inform the Network right away. Contact Lisa Hall at LHall@comagine.org or 206-923-0714, and submit our Facility Interruption in Service Form located at https://esrdforms.comagine.org/machform/view.php?id=12270.

CDC #FightFlu Campaign

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CDC reports that the best way to protect yourself from the flu is to get vaccinated every year, and has begun a campaign to encourage everyone to get the flu vaccine, especially those with weakened immune systems like CKD patients, who have an increased risk of severe illness from the flu, even without considering COVID-19 – which you can get along with the flu. Find campaign resources like the animation below, in English and Spanish, at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/resource-center/freeresources/graphics/animated-fight-flu-punch.htm .

HDC Blog Post on Dialysis, Travel, and COVID-19

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Home Dialysis Central has added a post to their blog called Dialysis Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic.  It’s important for dialysis patients to know and accept that they are at higher risk for serious complications if they get COVID-19, because they have kidney failure.  This is true for any ESRD patient, not just those who are 65 or older.  According to CMS, during the first half of 2020 Medicare patients on dialysis were more than twice as vulnerable to COVID-19 infection compared to non-dialysis Medicare patients, and more than four times as likely to require hospitalization.  Find the HDC post at https://homedialysis.org/news-and-research/blog/372-dialysis-travel-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.

4/29 AAKP HealthLine on COVID-19 and CKD 1-4

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AAKP HealthLine will present an April 29, 2020 webinar on Fighting Coronavirus Upstream – What Early Stage Kidney Disease Patients Need to Know, about how people with CKD Stages 1-4 may be able to fend off COVID-19 (I’m extrapolating that from limited information).  Find more information and register at https://aakp.org/programs-and-events/aakp-healthline/.