Becoming a Care Partner for a Loved One on Hemodialysis

Home hemodialysis can give patients with chronic kidney disease the opportunity to get back to the things they love.

Today, there are many different treatment options available for patients, including varying frequency, duration, and time of day. These options allow prescriptions to be customized to the patient’s individual clinical and lifestyle needs, while also providing an opportunity for increased independence and flexibility in treatment scheduling.

Some patients may require a care partner to perform home hemodialysis. The trained and qualified care partner needs to be present during treatments for support and to act in the event of a medical emergency.

Provided that both the patient and physician sign off on solo home hemodialysis, having a care partner may not be a requirement to perform treatments. Additional ancillary devices and training are required to perform solo home hemodialysis.

For some patients, having a trained care partner present during treatment gives patients added support. If you have a family member or friend who is interested in home hemodialysis, it is important for them to have a conversation with their care team to determine if a care partner is required.

WHO QUALIFIES AS A CARE PARTNER? ALMOST ANYONE!

A home hemodialysis care partner is anyone who has been trained and is qualified to use the home hemodialysis system. A care partner is not a professional caregiver (a live-in medical assistant) and does not have to be a live-in relative, spouse, or family member. A home hemodialysis care partner can be a friend, next-door neighbor, work colleague, church friend, or even a business associate.

Risks and Responsibilities

Patients should review the following information carefully and discuss it with their doctors to decide whether home hemodialysis with NxStage^® systems is right for them.

Users should weigh the risks and benefits of performing home hemodialysis with NxStage systems.

• Medical staff will not be present to respond to health emergencies that might happen during home treatments.
• Users and their care partners will be responsible for all aspects of their hemodialysis treatments from start to finish.
• Users may not experience the reported benefits of home, more frequent or nocturnal hemodialysis with the NxStage systems.
• The NxStage systems require a prescription for use.

Certain forms of home hemodialysis have additional risks.

• If a doctor prescribes more frequent home hemodialysis, vascular access is exposed to more frequent use which may lead to access related complications, including infection of the site. Doctors should evaluate the medical necessity of more frequent treatments and discuss the risks and benefits of more frequent therapy with users.
• If a doctor prescribes “solo/independent” home hemodialysis without a care partner during waking hours, risks of significant injury or death increase because no one is present to help users respond to health emergencies. If users experience needles coming out, blood loss, or very low blood pressure during solo home hemodialysis, they may lose consciousness or become physically unable to correct the health emergency. Users will need additional ancillary devices and training to perform solo home hemodialysis.
• If a doctor prescribes “nocturnal” home hemodialysis at night while the user and a care partner are sleeping, risks increase due to the length of treatment time and because therapy is performed while users and their care partners are sleeping. These risks include, among other things, blood access disconnects and blood loss during sleep, blood clotting due to slower blood flow or increased treatment time or both, and delayed response to alarms when waking from sleep.

APM2050 Rev. H