Abstract

Introduction:

The vast majority patients on hemodialysis have their treatments managed in clinics by health professionals. Studies indicate that self-care hemodialysis would be selected by many patients if available and offers advantages for patients and clinics. The Tablo® Hemodialysis System (Tablo) is a device designed for self-care use. Patients performing self-care must be able set up the device to start their treatment and to resolve machine alarms that indicate a problem during therapy. The purpose of this study was to assess actual patient experience on Tablo with respect to the time required to set up the machine, the frequency of alarms and the time required to resolve the alarms.

Methods:

733 treatments on Tablo in 50 patients at four dialysis units were monitored for the frequency and type of alarms. In a predetermined subset of 356 treatments in 20 patients doing in-center self-care hemodialysis using Tablo, the time required to set up the disposables needed to start therapy with Tablo, alarm frequency and the time required to resolve alarms were recorded.

Findings:

Ninety percent (18/20) of patients set up the disposables needed to initiate therapy in less than 5 minutes. There were no alarms in 354 (48%) and one alarm in 136 (19%) of treatments. On average there were 1.3 alarms per treatment. The most common alarms (65%) were related to arterial and venous pressures. Patients resolved all alarms successfully. Eighty six percent of alarms were resolved in less than one minute and the average time for alarm resolution was 22 seconds.

Discussion:

Patients using Tablo can successfully and rapidly set up the device for in-center self-care hemodialysis. The number of alarms per treatment was low. Alarm resolution was rapid and complete. These results confirm previously published Tablo human factors studies.