A skilled nursing provider expanded its patient population to serve high-acuity residents recently after launching a hemodialysis service at one of its facilities.
New Jersey-based Marquis Health Services recently started offering staff-assisted bedside hemodialysis to skilled nursing residents at its Providence Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, in Yeadon, PA, with the help of partner Compass Home Dialysis.
Under previous regulations, it was “nearly impossible” for SNFs to provide care to dialysis residents who required high-flow oxygen, tracheostomy care and/or other conditions and therefore needed to be transported to and from a traditional dialysis center, according to Michael Smith, RN, LNHA, division president for Marquis Health Services.
The onsite service allows staff members to have more time to focus internally on patient care rather than accompany patients to offsite treatment, Smith noted.
Shimmy Meystel, CEO of Concerto Renal Services in Lincolnwood, IL, said it now makes sense financially for providers to add on-site dialysis.
“With PDPM, now operators are going to be incentivized to take higher-acuity patients,” Meystel said. “Up until now there was always a need, and now operators can handle the needs. That’s why you’re seeing a lot of the rage now.”
“We anticipate that only to continue to grow,” he added.
Nosson Factor, COO of Concerto Renal Services, said onsite dialysis “opens (providers) up to an entire new spectrum of patients.”
“Nursing homes love it because it gives them a whole new market of patients they can service,” he added.
Marquis hopes to reduce hospital readmissions. Programs like its bedside hemodialysis service have been known to cut hospital readmissions by up to 23%, according to Jeremy Graves, COO of Compass Home Dialysis.
“Instead of dialysis peaks and valleys, this treatment provides more of a gradual wave — which is far less stressful on the body and, more specifically, the heart,” Graves said.
Smith added that selecting the right partner is “essential.”
“Specifically as it relates to bedside dialysis, we seek providers focused on service and clinical excellence, who are able to quickly and efficiently become part of our facilities’ interdisciplinary teams,” he said. “Finding the right fit is vitally important.”
