Who are ESRD patients?
Patients on dialysis are your family members, friends, and colleagues. Irreversible kidney failure affects 400,000 Americans and the number grows each year at an increasing rate. Kidney failure is fatal unless a patient receives one of two types of treatment – dialysis or kidney transplantation. The shortage of donor organs limits transplantation, so the vast majority of patients undergo regular dialysis treatments of three to four hours duration, three times a week. Today’s patients are older and sicker than those first enrolled in the Medicare ESRD program, due primarily to the aging of the population and the long-term effects of diabetes and hypertension, the leading risk factors for chronic kidney disease, the precursor to kidney failure. African Americans, Hispanics and other minority groups are most at-risk for developing kidney failure. And while African Americans make up just 12 percent of the general population, they account for 30 percent of people with kidney failure. Why fo
