A 2001 study from the American Kidney Fund says more than 67-hundred Arkansans suffer from kidney disease and need some kind of dialysis to stay alive.
But, many are living in healthcare deserts where getting regular dialysis treatments can result in costly back-and-forth trips to providers who are miles away. KASU’s Brandon Tabor spoke to Lawrence Memorial Hospital president Josh Conlee about a new service at their nursing home that tackles this issue head on.
TRANSCRIPT
Josh Conlee: So, our nursing home, Lawrence Hall, is unique. that it is actually attached to the hospital. We're one of the few in the state that's like that in its set up.
And one area that we've seen in research, looking at data is that more and more individuals are needing dialysis care. With that, there's a couple of different approaches, how dialysis patients get their care. One of them is going to a outpatient setting and getting your dialysis three times a week.
We said, okay, how can we fit that need at Lawrence healthcare? So we said, does it fit in the hospital? Does it fit in the outpatient side of things that fit in the nursing home? So we said, All right. We take a step back and look forward and said, where does it fit both financially, strategically, and as a care setting? And when you look at the state of Arkansas a dialysis center located in a nursing home doesn't exist. And they're starting to become more and more prevalent around the nation. But in Arkansas, this is a first of its model. So we said, this is a unique opportunity that we can build a very real strategic niche to solve a care condition that we have at Lawrence. So that's kind of how we got to the idea. And we by the time, what was six, eight months later, we built out a six bed, six chair dialysis arena in our nursing home. We call it our dialysis den, because when you come into a nursing home, you're entering a resident's home.
So a den is where we go to live, and be with your family. and that's what we are.
Brandon Tabor: So your new center, basically the nursing home is already unique in itself because it's attached to a hospital, as you said, that there aren't very many of those in the state at all . It's been open for a minute since the summer. What kind of an impact has it had on the residents so far that you've noticed?
Josh Conlee: Yeah, so the residents have come in and being a resident in our nursing home, we've seen some good indications of better quality of care, better satisfaction cost decreases, because when we looked at it and we looked at initially when Prior to we had a dialysis resident Lawrence Hall, we had to three times a week, put them on our transportation, a van, take them to Jonesboro for their treatment.
They had that treatment and they come back. Now residents are literally across the hall from the unit. So our nursing staff, walks them, wheels them over to the dialysis, just across the hall, six feet; eight feet away and they get their treatment. So they don't have to worry about that transportation, which is time consuming, which is costly for facilities around the nation; around the state.
And then that resident satisfaction is through the roof because, they're just traveling right there. They don't have to worry about getting up and down transportation. What if that outpatient facilities running late? That's poor quality of care and just how the system's designed.
So we hope we've increased it and we've seen that. Our residents that are having dialysis treatments in our facility. They're showing that and it's been a great quality improvement on how we pride their care, you know great satisfaction So it's really the two main drivers as well as cost to the family or to facility for us that has decreased So That's been a big win too.
So we've seen some, positives for this, new treatment of care.
Brandon Tabor: , Can people who aren't residents of the nursing home; can they utilize the facility, or is it only restricted for people that are residents?
Josh Conlee: In its current states restricted to residents of our nursing home. Now we are exploring opportunities for that to expand out. But right now, the way that we are licensed, it is only for the residents of our nursing home. but we are looking at that cause that's been a feedback from community right now.
Brandon Tabor: For people who aren't familiar with, Walnut Ridge and its location, the only places that were around that offered dialysis treatment were what... Pocahontas, Paragould, Jonesboro, uh, so those, I can imagine that, having something like this and eventually getting up to the point of expanding it to, other people outside of the nursing home will be a great impact for residents that live there.
Josh Conlee: Yeah, we believe so. And ,we're marketing our dialysis den to more than just Lawrence County. We're hoping that Northeast Arkansas, North Central Arkansas, I mean, we've been in Little Rock marketing because again, this is a unique care setting that is the first of its kind in the state in this model.
This isn't just helping the residents of Lawrence County, even though we want that to be a priority. We believe we can make a bigger impact, with the entire state on this once people are aware of this new care setting.
Brandon Tabor: There are a lot of towns like Walnut Ridge, that, have to travel out of town to try to get dialysis treatment. The hospital has a great partnership with the community. What can other health care providers in the state learn from what Lawrence Memorial has been able to do?
Josh Conlee: I'll speak to, I think, rural health care providers in particular. Health care right now is a tricky business.
You see the news reports and the news around the state and the country. It's just, I think a transitionary time right now in health care, with the way things work and I think in rural care settings, you have to think of new creative ways to build a better mousetrap, if you will. Looking at partnerships,we are uniquely positioned where we have a great partnership with St. Bernard's and they can help provide the specialty care that we could never provide by ourselves or recruit that cardiologist in. We're able to partner and have a cardiologist come once a week for our community. And partnering with, maybe just business industry to move things and shake things up and, evolve that care. Now technologies coming and the use of digital health, whether it be through telemedicine, through wearables at home, but all that's based on your community need. And , talking to your community about what needs do we have? You know, what does the data tell us that, we know obesity, diabetes, how can we influence care there?
But also looking to, partners and community, whether it be the housing authority,transportation needs, the food industry about food insecurity and saying, what steps can we put in place to address those needs too? And how does it all, I'm from Louisiana. How do you put that gumbo together with all those pieces, and create that good dish.
And I think that's how we have to evolve in the healthcare industry and how you look at making it through what is this transitionary time and coming out with a, operationally financial, feasible institution to, we've been in our community for 60 years to be here for another 60 years.
Brandon Tabor: Josh Conlee. He is the president of Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Walnut Ridge. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Josh Conlee: Thank you, Brandon.
