Investigation of Suitability and Feasibility of Home Dialysis

There are several aspects affecting home dialysis uptake: clinical, patient, and financial perspectives. The comprehension of these viewpoints can lead to a more encompassing plan to increase uptake. This thesis tries to assess each of the perspectives. The clinical perspective compares the clinical characteristics of patients receiving care at home to ones at facility, showing that nearly all patients should be able to be sent home. The patient perspective looks at the reasons provided by patients for not being able to or wanting to receive care at home, indicating that a significant number of patients could benefit when infrastructural and/or educational reasons are alleviated. The financial perspective compares the annual cost of a patient receiving their entire care at home to one at facility. Based on preliminary estimates, the results highlight that the annual cost of a home patient is less than half of the cost of a facility patient.M.A.S.2017-06-14 00:00:0