3 Tips for Setting Up a Home Dialysis Center
If you need dialysis on a regular basis, it may not be realistic to always go to the nearest dialysis center or hospital for treatment, especially if you live in a remote location. For individuals in these situations, setting up an at-home hemodialysis (HD) center is often the best option. When It comes to purchasing medical equipment for sale and setting up an at-home dialysis center, there are some things you will need to do.
1. Get Training
First, you can't just set-up a dialysis center in your home. You will need to be approved for this type of treatment by a doctor. Then, you will need to undergo training for about one to two months in order to learn how to use all the equipment correctly. Usually, this training is provided by a nurse that will come to your home and will help you learn how to use the equipment and make sure everything is set-up correctly. If you have someone who will be helping you, they will need to go through formal training as well.
2. Creating Space
Second, you need to create a dedicated space in your home for your treatment area. You need a fair amount of space.
You will need to set-up either a chair or bed, based on your medical needs, that you can sit in while getting treatment. Then, you need space for the dialysis machine. Additionally, you need a dedicated fridge and some shelving or storage space where you can keep all your supplies.
In addition, you may need to have some special outlets installed to run the equipment, as well as access to a drain for all the treatment fluids to go down.
To save space, place your fridge and shelves together vertically so that you can stack things up. If you are lacking on space, you can also order smaller shipments of supplies, so you don't have to store as many supplies at once.
3. Making Things Comfortable
Once you take care of the basics of the space, you are going to want to make the space comfortable. This is somewhere you are going to spend a lot of time. Add some nice lighting so that you can read or work on your computer when you are getting your treatment.
Add some good energy to the space by putting up artwork or pictures that you enjoy looking like. Make the space personal to you; your home dialysis treatment area can and should feel more personal than the treatment centers in a hospital.
If you need dialysis all the time, see if you qualify for an at-home dialysis set-up. If you do, you need to create the space for the equipment, and you need to go through the necessary training for you to take care of your own dialysis needs.