A Pragmatic Approach to CKD Patient Education

Over 350,000 adult Arkansans have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 9 out of 10 (312,000) of these Arkansans are unaware of having it. A "Know Your Kidney Number" (eGFR) poster (KYKN) campaign is being launched statewide to increase CKD awareness and detection. As awareness increases, the demand for patient education will increase. Educating patients has proven to be effective in delaying CKD progression and establishing optimal renal replacement therapy (RRT) when needed. CKD patient education has historically been provided by nephrology clinicians. Yet most patients are not referred to nephrology until the patient is nearing the need for RRT. Novel pragmatic approaches to reaching and educating patients earlier in their disease state and partnering with a broader pool of clinicians that can provide the education is needed. Most problems related to CKD start when kidney function is \~45 %, earlier education can empower patients to make changes to protect their kidney function earlier and plan for RRT. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) developed and copyrighted the "CKD: What You Need to Know" patient education system. Research showed almost 90% of the attendees could choose a modality after either tele-education (TE) or face to face (FTF) education. Home modality choices doubled. Patients were able to make informed choices regardless of the modality of education. Of those starting RRT 47% started on a home modality or received a transplant. This compares to 10% nationally. Both transplant and home dialysis have better outcomes and are less costly compared to in-center hemodialysis. Harp's Pharmacy has a successful medication therapy management (MTM) program where pharmacists are provided time for patient-centered activities for patients with diabetes (DM), hypertension (HTN), the 2 leading causes for CKD, and heart failure (HF), the leading cause of death in CKD. Thirty six percent of patients with DM will develop CKD and hypertension can be both a cause and an effect of CKD. In this project Harp's Pharmacy will use the MTM infrastructure to add CKD to the program in select pharmacies in the delta. The CKD tools build on and support actions that improve the underlying conditions that are already being addressed. The "CKD: What You Need to Know" tools will be used with patients with known CKD or 2 of the 3 conditions covered by MTM and randomized into 1 of 2 education arms that offer various levels of support or a control arm.

Using non-nephrology clinicians to expand access to CKD education earlier in the patient's disease progress is essential. This project will inform how various levels of support provided by pharmacists and staff using nephrology developed tools in self-study models can 1) effect patient's ability to select the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) modality (Incenter hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, no dialysis or do not have enough information to make a choice) to use if or when dialysis is needed 2) identify patient's interest in obtaining a renal transplant and, if so, has a possible donor been identified 3) identify actions they are willing to take to protect their current kidney function using a CKD Action Plan that contains 1 knowledge goal and 10 performance goals based on international guidelines 4) allow comparisons of support time and outcomes for each of the 3 groups. Empowering patients to be proactive partners in their health care, through education and accountability, by choosing both the RRT and performance goals to protect the patient's kidneys is key to improving outcomes. Demonstrating that non-nephrology clinicians can effectively educate and support these patients will provide models that other clinicians can use. Minorities, especially in rural areas, are less likely to receive most kinds of care including evidence-based practices, home dialysis or transplantation. Developing patient-centered approaches to care such as this project can reduce disparities. One-on-one outreach to educate, motivate and seek the patient's feedback can strengthen commitment and adherence to medical regimens. Learning what to expect can promote self-management behaviors. The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) Southeast (SE) region covers most of the Delta and was selected because the SE region had the poorest outcomes for patients starting RRT. In 2017, new patients were predominately black (61%), less than half had seen a nephrologist prior to starting RRT, only 1.3% had seen a dietitian, most (92.3%) started hemodialysis using a catheter and 2.1% started on home peritoneal dialysis. Only 2.1% had no insurance. This data can be tracked annually to track impact. The tools being used were developed by a multidisciplinary team of nephrology experts which are limited in the delta. Courses including train the trainer classes for pharmacies and 10 points of Care for CKD for clinicians will be conducted. Collaboration with local providers can both educate and promote community engagement. Harp pharmacists expressed randomization concerns. Harp's Pharmacy reported that many of the MTM subjects have multiple family members or friends enrolled in the study. This could confound randomization into various arms since these subjects are highly likely to compare and contrast the details of the patient's intervention. The research team decided that a cluster randomization schedule would be utilized with each cluster self-selecting a leader that would be enrolled in the study and be responsible for the education of the other cluster members. All cluster members will undergo the same testing.