Frequent and Longer Patient-Doctor Contact May Prolong Dialysis Patients’ Lives

Compared with patients in dialysis facilities having frequent patient-doctor contact (more than once per week), those with intermediate contact (once per week) and infrequent contact (less than once per week) had a 6% and 11% higher risk of dying, respectively, during the 12-year study period. Each 5 minutes shorter duration of contact was linked with a 5% higher risk of dying. More frequent and longer contact was also linked with fewer hospitalizations. The JASN study, which included 24,498 patients, involved information from 1996 to 2008 from 778 dialysis facilities in numerous countries.