Caring for every person who trusts us with their dialysis care means more than providing renal replacement therapy. Our job, as compassionate nephrology professionals, is to provide kidney care that not only keeps patients alive, but that allows patients to live life as they hope to.
People who live with kidney disease want to live as normal a life as possible. They have stories, they have dreams and like all of us, they have activities that bring joy and meaning to their lives.
We begin to humanize dialysis when we make a concerted effort to approach the work we do from the patient’s perspective, when we listen to their stories, their dreams and hopes and when we seek answers to the following questions for every patient:
We humanize dialysis when we make sure to provide ‘adequate dialysis’– dialysis that allows patients to feel well enough and normal enough to be able to do the things that matter most to them.
We humanize dialysis by seeing the person, the father, the mother, the wife, the husband, the daughter, the son, the professional and the family person – dialysis is what the person needs, it is not who they are.
Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, quality care has its own hierarchy. It begins with the fundamentals and layers on more tools that help patients reach the highest outcomes and quality of life possible.
“The secret ingredient in quality care is love.” ~ Avedis Donabedian, 1919 - 2000
Tailoring our care to meet the needs of every patient, every treatment, every time is how Satellite individualizes ESKD care. With our focus on determining the modality that will enable each patient to live their best life possible, we make certain we understand and respect the answers from every patient to these simple questions:
We know that individualized patient care fosters hope and contributes to every patient’s ability to lead a full life. We are always mindful that every one of our patients has hopes, plans and dreams. Living with a chronic disease is challenging. The purpose of dialysis is to help make every one of our patient’s hopes, plans and dreams possible. Care is delivered by designing it through the patients’ and their families’ eyes. This is how we respond to their trust and needs.
As the first dialysis organization in the United States to introduce free-standing centers dedicated to education and training for home dialysis, Satellite Healthcare’s WellBound centers were created to provide comprehensive, ongoing education and support to address the needs of patients who adopt a home dialysis modality as their preferred kidney replacement therapy.
Our unparalleled commitment to home therapies is responsible for our achieving nearly 2x the national average of patients who undergo home (PD/HHD) as their therapy. This contributes to our low standardized hospitalization rate (SHR) admits, more Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) patients achieving target levels of dialysis treatment and PD patients achieving a low peritonitis rate. Our PD and HHD patients consistently surpass industry standards for clinical outcomes, resulting not only in a better quality of life for patients, but a mitigation of hospitalizations and medical complications.
Patients and their families who come to WellBound benefit from a robust program of kidney wellness education classes that include Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) management, treatment options education, nutrition, exercise and stress management, cardiovascular and blood pressure health, diabetes, as well as in-depth information regarding transplantation.
All WellBound centers are staffed with compassionate and dedicated kidney health experts. Many of our dialysis nurses are certified in nephrology (CNN/CDN), our social workers hold advanced degrees and our dietitians are specially trained in renal nutrition.
Our 24/7 urgent care telephone support line provides invaluable peace of mind for patients, and our coordinated care model supports a range of lifestyle needs for home dialysis patients.
The most important person on any care team is the patient. Our public health experts have created thoughtful, engaging patient education materials that help patients understand the choices and resources they have to live the best life possible.
With all the talk about treatment, we never lose sight that what it’s really about is helping people live a longer, healthier life that includes time to enjoy the moments of joy that make life worth living.
From pre-ESKD education to dialysis start, we’re ready to help you provide the best possible care for each patient.