How to Increase Dialysis Utilization in a Center

Having a friendly and helpful staff in a clean facility with flexible schedules is attractive to patients.

When you have a product no one wants, marketing can be a challenge. However, while no one wants dialysis, there are, unfortunately, many people who need it. Keeping your dialysis center busy so that your machines don't sit idle is an issue of good marketing. The trick is to get the word out in all the right places so that dialysis patients come to you in great enough numbers that you have maximum utilization of your equipment.

Instructions

1. Network with nephrologists in your area. Kidney specialists are usually the ones putting people on dialysis, so their referrals are critical to you keeping full utilization of your center for outpatient treatment.

2. Get in touch with your local chapter of the National Kidney Foundation. People with kidney problems receive a lot of information and recommendations from NKF. Let people running support and information services know about your center and what it offers patients.

3. Evaluate your booking systems. Make sure that your schedulers aren't turning away people because a particular time of day is more popular than other times. If you have too many people for one time slot and not enough for another, consider price breaks or other incentives for patients to schedule for the less-utilized treatment slots.

4. Visit nearby assisted- and independent-living facilities as well as local skilled nursing facilities. These are places where older people, who may be dialysis patients, live and receive information. See if you can talk to staff there about your program and leave information that they can post or give to dialysis patients. If nurses at these facilities feel good about your center's quality and level of care, they are more likely to send you patients.

5. Offer transportation. Many dialysis patients rely on family members and caregivers to get them to their dialysis appointments. Appointment scheduling in these cases depends heavily on when the ride is available. A dialysis center that offers transportation may be able to attract a client base for dialysis slots.

References

• National Kidney Foundation: Local Offices
• PubMed.gov: Patients on Hemodialysis Rely on Nephrologists and Dialysis Units for Maintenance Health Care
• Veterans Administration: VA Geriatrics and Extended Care Referral
• Scribd: Hospital Marketing Techniques and Management Toward the Successful Process of Hospital