MO851: Impact of COVID-19 on Dialysis Patients: Reported Experience in Qatar

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Patient-centred care is a concept focussing on meeting the specific health needs of patients as expressed by them. There is increasing evidence to show that patient centred care can help to achieve higher rates of patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes and overall better experience, particularly for patients with chronic disease. Patients Reported Experience Measures (PREM) is another concept associated with patient-cantered care. PREM surveys capture information about the healthcare experience as perceived by patients. Its importance lies in the incorporation of patient feedback into the clinical decisions and service evolution. Dialysis patients play an important role in their treatment and their voice matters to provide proper care. PREM was first conducted in 2019 in our dialysis unit including 200 patients. In 2020, COVID-19 impacted the dialysis services and resulted in many challenges including staff shortage and deployment. METHOD We used a validated questionnaire from the National Health Service in United Kingedm. It consisted of 7 questions covering demographics, dialysis options, patient portal, patient's relationship with the staff, teamwork and travelling abroad. The survey involved 317 randomly selected patients who have been at least 1 year on dialysis. We performed a comparison of the 2019 and 2020 results using Chi-squared test. RESULTS 257 patients on hemodialysis and 60 on peritoneal dialysis participated in the survey. Majority of the surveyed patients (65%) were on dialysis from 1–5 years and 32% with more than 5 years’ survival on dialysis. Sixty five % of patients responded that they were on follow up in nephrology or low clearance clinic before starting dialysis. Access to dialysis team, nurses and doctors from home declined in 2020 due to the shortage of staff in the dialysis services and deployment of many staff to COVID-19 facilities, 62% of surveyed patients were able to contact their care givers from home compared with 87% in 2019 (P < 0.0001). Regarding education, 78% of the patients responded that they received education before starting dialysis and it was in an understandable manner while patients' response to the same question was 85% in 2019 (P = 0.047). 44% received education on side effects, which is remarkably less compared with 74% in 2019 (P = 0.0001). CONCLUSION Patient reported experience helps in the evaluation of health services. Exploring patient experience in dialysis patients in Qatar, we found negative impact of COVID-19 from patients’ perspectives. Our PREM survey showed significant decline in many parameters likely attributed to COVID-19 consequences including the shortage of staff.