A Pragmatic Approach to CKD Patient Education

Study Summary

Over 350,000 adult Arkansans have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 9 out of 10 (312,000) of these Arkansans are unaware of having it. A "Know Your Kidney Number" (eGFR) poster (KYKN) campaign is being launched statewide to increase CKD awareness and detection. As awareness increases, the demand for patient education will increase. Educating patients has proven to be effective in delaying CKD progression and establishing optimal renal replacement therapy (RRT) when needed. CKD patient education has historically been provided by nephrology clinicians. Yet most patients are not referred to nephrology until the patient is nearing the need for RRT. Novel pragmatic approaches to reaching and educating patients earlier in their disease state and partnering with a broader pool of clinicians that can provide the education is needed. Most problems related to CKD start when kidney function is \~45 %, earlier education can empower patients to make changes to protect their kidney function earlier and plan for RRT. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) developed and copyrighted the "CKD: What You Need to Know" patient education system. Research showed almost 90% of the attendees could choose a modality after either tele-education (TE) or face to face (FTF) education. Home modality choices doubled. Patients were able to make informed choices regardless of the modality of education. Of those starting RRT 47% started on a home modality or received a transplant. This compares to 10% nationally. Both transplant and home dialysis have better outcomes and are less costly compared to in-center hemodialysis. Harp's Pharmacy has a successful medication therapy management (MTM) program where pharmacists are provided time for patient-centered activities for patients with diabetes (DM), hypertension (HTN), the 2 leading causes for CKD, and heart failure (HF), the leading cause of death in CKD. Thirty six percent of patients with DM will develop CKD and hypertension can be both

Primary Outcome

This primary study aim is to increase the subject's ability to select a dialysis modality. Descriptive statistics will be used to examine the trend in the subjects' ability to choose or not choose a dialysis modality. Descriptive statistics will be used to examine the trend of patients answers based on comparisons of responses on pre and post tests and evaluation form with the options of Incenter Hemodialysis (ICH), Home Hemodialysis (HH), Peritoneal Dialysis (PD), No Dialysis, don't have enough

Interventions

• OTHER CKD "What You Need To Know" Workbook System
• OTHER CKD Action Plan
• OTHER CKD Web-based Resource List
• OTHER Food Label reading exercise