Water supply?

merlee · Jun 9, 2012

An issue? No. Water is used to dilute the dialysate, which usually comes in gallon jugs. The use of the shower line was incredible resourceful. Many newer hospitals have a water line built into the wall at the head of the bed (in ICU rooms) just for dialysis.

The water does not come in direct contact with the patient.

But I don't get the 'fill the hall ways' inference, unless you mean they were doing dialysis in the hall way! Patients in iso go to many tests that can't be done bedside.

sauconyrunner · Jun 9, 2012

We have a nice low rate of infection, so we are trying to not have isolation pts travel the hallways if there is an alternative (like dialysis in the rooms). I know that iso patients can travel, but there is no point in having them do so if we have an alternative and since our dialysis is able to be done at the bedside, extra travelling is to be avoided.

I was thrilled with the Nurses idea, but I wanted to be sure there wasn't something strange about it.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2012

Water is extremely dangerous for the dialysis patient unless it is treated, by using water directly from the shower concerns me but I do not know how you normally treat your water.

Do the dialysis machines filter the water or do you have a water cart.

sauconyrunner · Jun 10, 2012

THey have two mobile machines and I believe both have some sort of filter device on them. As I said, I am not a dialysis nurse, just trying to prevent those iso patients from having to travel!

Tish88 · Jun 22, 2012

Water is extremely dangerous for the dialysis patient unless it is treated, by using water directly from the shower concerns me but I do not know how you normally treat your water.
Do the dialysis machines filter the water or do you have a water cart.

They would hook the shower hose up to the R/O machine (reverse osmosis water machine), that filters the water before it goes to the dialysis machines.

I have hooked up this way in the past. I also had to run a garden hose to get water supply to a patient that was on ECMO and could not me moved.

More and more hospitals are designing patient rooms with dialysis in mind and placing water supply lines in more convenient places.

I can remember having to place a filled trash can on the foot pedals of sinks to get water to go to my R/O. You just had to make sure housekeeping didn't empty the trash, because the cans themselves was not heavy enough to activate the water. One fellow male nurse used to carry a brick in his backpack to place on those pedals. (That is a bit extreme for me).

sauconyrunner · Jun 22, 2012

Isn't it amazing that the one brand new unit we have is the one that does not have any water supply to the rooms! Drives me nuts. And now we are not allowed to use the shower as it might hurt the physical plant... ah well..

Tish88 · Jun 22, 2012

Isn't it amazing that the one brand new unit we have is the one that does not have any water supply to the rooms! Drives me nuts. And now we are not allowed to use the shower as it might hurt the physical plant... ah well..

I don't understand how using the shower could hurt "the physical plant"? Don't patients use the showers? All you are doing is running the water :banghead:

If the unit does not have water supply to the rooms, how do you wash your hands?

sauconyrunner · Jun 22, 2012

I don't understand how using the shower could hurt "the physical plant"? Don't patients use the showers? All you are doing is running the water
If the unit does not have water supply to the rooms, how do you wash your hands?

The sinks are those crazy motion activated sinks. drives all the nurses nuts. To use the shower, we have to unhook the shower head...I just had a meeting with our director of development and expressed an interest in new units having regular sinks...lets say that did not go so well....It is always an adventure, every every day.

acutedialysis · Jun 25, 2012

We use the showers quite often. The water supply is the same as what is provided to the sinks. A word of caution is the temperature. When using the shower, the dialysis staff must make sure that they RO system is being fed cold water not luke warm or hot.

diabo, RN · Jul 6, 2012

It's an easy fix. Put in a request to the proper department. Most automatic sinks can be deactivated temporarly. Phoenix meter will tell the temp. I assume the dialysis nurse is checking conductivity, PH, and temp???

Theoretically you could run pond water through the reverse osmosis machine and end up with ultra pure water for the dialysis machine. Just make sure the water is being checked for chloramines. The patient is still on your license, so don't be shy about asking questions.