Dialysis Emergency Preparedness Guide
Build a clinician-approved plan for dialysis disruptions covering treatment contacts, records, transportation, medicines, food, and water.
Plan with the care team
Ask the dialysis center for its emergency plan, alternate treatment sites, after-hours number, evacuation procedure, and delay instructions. Know how the center will contact patients and how to report your location after evacuation.
Keep portable information
Carry identification, diagnosis, dialysis prescription, recent treatment details, allergies, medicine doses, vascular-access information, clinician contacts, insurance details, and pharmacy. Keep paper and secure digital copies.
Protect medication and access
Maintain the emergency medicine supply the clinician recommends and store it correctly. Protect the fistula, graft, or catheter from pressure, contamination, and injury. Never change dialysis, access procedures, or medicines without clinical direction.
Prepare transport and utilities
Identify more than one route and ride option to treatment. Home-dialysis users should coordinate electricity, clean water, supplies, equipment, and technical-support plans with their program and utility.
Follow the prescribed diet
A dialysis emergency diet is individualized and may change when treatment is delayed. Obtain written instructions from the renal dietitian. Seek urgent help for breathing difficulty, chest pain, severe weakness, confusion, uncontrolled bleeding, or other emergency symptoms.
Quick checklist
- Save relevant emergency, utility, and healthcare contacts.
- Keep required supplies accessible and check dates regularly.
- Practice the plan with household members and caregivers.
- Follow current directions from qualified local authorities.
Frequently asked questions
When should this plan be reviewed?
Review it at least twice a year and after a move, household change, medical change, equipment change, or local emergency.
What takes priority during a real event?
Current directions from emergency responders, utilities, public-health officials, and treating clinicians take priority over general guidance.
Sources
Kidney Community Emergency Response guidance, CMS dialysis emergency preparedness resources, and the patient’s dialysis clinic.