Primary Care Use and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients Initiating Hemodialysis
Primary care is associated with improved health outcomes for the general population, but whether this also applies to patients on dialysis is unclear. We used the United States Renal Data System database which tracks all US dialysis patients to compare those who saw a primary care provider within 3 months of starting dialysis with those who did not. We found that about 50% of patients saw a primary care provider after starting dialysis, and those who saw a primary care provider had lower rates of mortality and hospitalization. Future studies should examine how primary care use can improve outcomes and identify barriers limiting primary care use.
Authors
- Raquel C. Greer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8798-7041)
- Byoungjun Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0945-3626)
- Morgan E. Grams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4430-6023)
- Rohanit Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3243-0868)
- Bernard G. Jaar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1210-7115)
- Dustin Le (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3231-6758)
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Thomas Jefferson University (US)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Precision for Medicine (United States) (US)
- New York University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Journal of Kidney Diseases
- Published
- 2025-06-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2025.04.017
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Chronic Disease Management Strategies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.71
Funders
- National Kidney Foundation