How do I find the best dialysis clinics in Oklahoma City?
Choosing a dialysis clinic in Oklahoma City should come down to the facility that can offer your loved one the best quality of life possible. Your loved one will be spending a lot of time there, so look for a facility that offers entertainment they enjoy. For instance, a movie buff might appreciate a strong selection of films. Likewise, little things such as comfortable furniture and food service can make treatments more tolerable.
You should also think about how your loved one is going to get there. Dialysis treatments can eat up a lot of a patient’s stamina, and you probably can’t hang out at a dialysis facility for hours on end unless you’re a full-time caretaker. Furthermore, you have to consider the cost. Medicare or private insurance will probably pick up the tab, but it never hurts to verify that with your loved one’s Oklahoma City dialysis center of choice.
Facts and trends in Oklahoma City dialysis
What is the prevalence of kidney disease in Oklahoma City?
The rate of ESRD diagnosis is increasing throughout the United States, and Oklahoma is one of the states where it’s rising even faster. The following statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlight the number of patients with ESRD per million residents in Oklahoma and the nation as a whole:
National trends are bad, but Oklahoma skyrocketed in 2018. If your loved one doesn’t need dialysis care yet, it may still pay dividends to start looking into dialysis clinics in Oklahoma City just because the rate is so high. This becomes truer if your loved one has risk factors such as age 60+, extensive use of over-the-counter pain medications, or hypertension.
What should caregivers in Oklahoma City know about the prevalence of kidney failure in the US?
Rates can be a misleading way of looking at numbers, so let’s try another approach. The following statistics from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases reveal the raw total of Americans who are dealing with (or have dealt with) some degree of kidney failure as of 2018:
More than 661,000 people have kidney failure.
468,000 people with kidney failure are on dialysis.
193,000 people are living with a functioning kidney transplant.
Yes, those are some big numbers that illustrate the scale of the problem. Kidney disease is one of the biggest health crises that nobody is talking about, and we’re trying to change that at Seasons. Our resources are always free to use, so please help your loved one find the best possible care today.
What should caregivers in Oklahoma City know about the dialysis process?
Chronic kidney disease often carries no symptoms at first, making it difficult to detect when it could still be effectively treated through lifestyle changes or medications. Kidney screenings are widely accessible, but patients may need to proactively ask for them. Two tests your loved one should consider are urine albumin-creatinine ratio (uACR) tests and kidney function blood tests.
uACR tests measure how much albumin is in your loved one’s urine. Albumin is a protein that’s supposed to be in the bloodstream, so any in the urine was the result of a kidney leak.
Kidney function blood tests measure Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR), or how efficiently a patient’s kidneys filter their blood. It is typically the preferred test by medical professionals.
Dialysis centers in Oklahoma City
Finding an Oklahoma City dialysis center may not be fun or easy, but it can help extend your loved one’s life with quality years. We think that it’s worth a little effort, especially if you use the free resources on our site to jump-start the process. We promise that you won’t regret it.
