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When dialysis clinics reach out to patients who miss appointments, more than half reschedule. A new study presented at ASN Kidney Week found that health issues on the day of treatment are the top reason patients skip sessions. Proactive staff outreach — not just patient awareness of risks — is the key driver of rescheduling.
Missing a dialysis session isn't just an inconvenience — for patients with end-stage kidney disease, it can mean hospitalization or worse. A new study presented at ASN Kidney Week in Denver sheds light on why patients skip treatments and what actually gets them to reschedule.
Researchers from DaVita surveyed nearly 4,000 patients who missed at least one dialysis session and found that health issues arising the same day of treatment were the most common culprit (48%), followed by transportation problems (11.4%) and scheduling conflicts (8.7%). Notably, most patients (58.3%) didn't plan to make up the missed session at all — until someone reached out.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: Simply knowing the risks isn't enough to change behavior. Clinics that take a proactive, personalized approach to outreach can meaningfully reduce missed treatments — and potentially prevent hospitalizations — for one of medicine's most vulnerable patient populations.
