Introduction: The UK Renal Association Clinical Practice Guidelines include clinical performance measures for biochemical parameters in dialysis patients [1]. The UK Renal Registry (UKRR) annually audits dialysis centre performance against these measures as part of its role in promoting continuous quality improvement.
Methods: Cross sectional performance analyses were undertaken to compare dialysis centre achievement of clinical audit measures for prevalent haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) cohorts in 2007. The biochemical variables studied were phosphate, adjusted calcium, parathyroid hormone, bicarbonate and total cholesterol. In addition longitudinal analyses were performed (2000-2007) to show changes in achievement of clinical performance measures over time.
Results: Serum phosphate was between 1.1-1.8 mmol/L in 53% of HD and 64% of PD patients. Since 2003 there has been annual improvement in phosphate control for both HD and PD patients, largely through a reduction in phosphate >1.8 mmol/L. PD patients this year also showed a reduction in the percentage with a low phosphate. Adjusted calcium was between 2.2-2.6 mmol/L in 73% of HD and 78% of PD patients. Parathyroid hormone was between 16-32 pmol/L in 25% of HD and 27% of PD patients. The audit measure for bicarbonate was achieved in 71% of HD and 50% of PD patients. There was inter-centre variation for all variables studied.
Conclusions: The UKRR consistently demonstrates inter-centre variation in achievement of biochemical clinical audit measures. Understanding the causes of this variation is an important part of improving the care of dialysis patients in the UK.
Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.