MADISON, Wisc.—The number of U.S. home dialysis programs in the Home Dialysis Central database has doubled since 2004, the nonprofit Medical Education Institute announced March 8.
Since 2004, the number of programs in the database, which does not track the number of patients, has increased to more than 6,500 from 3,292, according to MEI. To compile the database number, MEI considers each modality a clinic offers as a separate program, and most clinics offer more than one home modality.
The fastest area of growth has been short daily home hemodialysis (SDHD): 2–3 hour treatments 5–6 days a week, according to MEI. In 2004, there were just 37 SDHD programs in the country. By March 1, 2011, there were more than 800, an increase of 2065 percent.
The number of programs offering other types of home dialysis has also increased. Conventional home hemodialysis (3x/week) is up 200 percent (from 294 programs to 889). Nocturnal home hemodialysis programs increased by 575 percent (from 73 to 493). The number of peritoneal dialysis (PD) programs has grown as well: in 2011, 40 percent of all U.S. dialysis clinics offer PD—up from 30 percent in 2004.
The Home Dialysis Central database (www.homedialysis.org/locate), started in 2004 when the site launched, was designed to help people find home treatment programs. It can be searched by city, state, zip code, and treatment option and has a Google mapping function and U.S. coverage maps for each modality. Last year, more than 12,300 people used this database to search for a home program, according to MEI.
