Develop an emergency plan prior to natural disasters to ensure quality patient support
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Having an emergency plan in place for natural disasters ensures a strong response when dialysis staff support patients on peritoneal dialysis, according to a poster presentation at the Annual Dialysis Conference.
In a case report, Katie Cave, RN, BSN, CNeph(C), from the Abbotsford PD Unit at Fraser Health, and colleagues analyzed their team’s emergency response to the flooding and landslides that occurred in British Columbia during November 2021. The natural disaster resulted in the closure of three major highways, and 32 of their patients on peritoneal dialysis were cut off from receiving supplies or assistance from the hospital.
“We, on the fly, developed a system of how we were going to react to this during the disaster,” Cave told Healio.
First, the Abbotsford PD Unit identified the patients with the help of the Fraser Health and BC Renal emergency response teams, according to Cave. A list developed by the provincial Patient Records and Outcome Management Information System (PROMIS) was cross-checked with charts to determine who the patients were, where they lived and what they needed.
“We also had to figure out what kind of dialysis inventory [patients] had on hand. So that was a matter of us calling Baxter, who could generate a list quickly for us, to figure out who was going to run out because this group of patients was isolated,” Cave said. “While we tell our patients to have 2 weeks’ worth of [continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis] CAPD supplies on hand, not everybody did.”
For patients located on the same side of the valley as the hospital and who were separated from their caregivers, team members personally delivered supplies. For patients located on the other side of the flood, team members conducted virtual CAPD training, helicoptered supplies and outsourced supplies from patients on the other side with extra resources.
From this experience, Cave and colleagues developed a report for future emergencies. They made improvements to the PROMIS emergency planning module to include an interactive map of patients’ homes, made emergency preparedness awareness campaigns biannual instead of annual, developed free online PD training and educated patients on why they need to have a minimum of 2 weeks CAPD supplies for emergencies.
“The biggest takeaway from all of it,” Cave said, “is to make sure that you have a plan and it's reviewed regularly because in the middle of a natural disaster is not when you want to be coming up with how to deal with a natural disaster.”
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Cave K, et al. Poster: 42967. Presented at: Annual Dialysis Conference. March 3-6, 2023; Kansas City, Mo.
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