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Delays in medical care will increase risks for patients. For this reason, timeliness of care is a public health priority and the one of the missions for this facility. The goal of this process improvement project was to enhance timeliness of care by restructuring fast track. Door-to-provider time, treat and release time, and the number of patients who left without being seen by a provider were monitored. Nurse practitioners were introduced into advanced practice provider mix and the development of care teams was implemented. The number of fast-track visits increased significantly to a projected 23,710 in 2017, whereas the door-to-provider time decreased to 48 min, treat and release times decreased to 162 min, and the number of patients who left without being seen decreased to 4.7%. Work needs to continue in these areas in to exceed Medicare and Medicaid Services benchmarks.

Installation of the Nephros Dual Stage Ultrafilter (DSU) added to a conventional hemodialysis unit to achieve ultrapure dialysate was tested in a group of 23 stable outpatients on chronic hemodialysis. Comparing the 6-month period prior to the installation of the filters (as baseline) to the 6-month period after the installation of the filters, we found a significant 40% reduction in the darbepoetin dose needed to maintain a stable hemoglobin level (p < 0.001). In addition, surrogate inflammatory markers, WBC count and serum albumin level, showed small but statistically significant improvements (p = 0.008 and p = 0.042, respectively). In conclusion, the use of the Nephros DSU to further reduce endotoxin exposure in chronic hemodialysis patients can result in improved erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) responsiveness and a lower ESA dose.