Studies Look at Blacks’ Noncompliance With Weekly Dialysis Treatment; Provider, Patient Satisfaction With Telephone Interpretation Services

• "Dialysis 'No-Shows' on Saturdays: Implications of the Weekly Hemodialysis Schedules on Nonadherence and Outcomes," (.pdf) Journal of the National Medical Association: Black hemodialysis patients with appointments scheduled every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday were less adherent to their treatment schedules than patients with appointments on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, largely because of high no-show rates for Saturday appointments, according to the study by Chamberlain Obialo of Morehouse University's School of Medicine and colleagues. The study, which examined the effect of weekly dialysis treatment schedules of 114 black adults over age 55 for a 12-month period, found that 61% did not attend their scheduled treatment at least once. Compared with other days of the week, patients were more likely to fail to show up for Saturday treatments. Thirty-one percent of patients missed appointments on Saturdays, compared with no-show rates of 8% to 17% on other days of the week. Researchers concluded that dialysis treatment compliance among blacks "remains a major problem," adding that a larger, more diverse study is needed to either "confirm or refute" the findings (Obialo et al, Journal of the National Medical Association, April 2008).
  

• "Satisfaction with Telephonic Interpreters in Pediatric Care" (.pdf), Journal of the National Medical Association: The study examined satisfaction of Spanish-speaking mothers and pediatric residents who either used or did not use telephone interpretation services during pediatric visits in urban hospitals. According to the study, 94% of mothers interviewed said the service was "very helpful," and 98% said the visit would have been "harder" without the service. The study also found that half of residents rated the service "very helpful," while half said it was "somewhat helpful." In addition, one-third of residents thought their patients would like to use the service again, and nearly half said they did not know. Researchers concluded, "Pediatric residents substantially underestimated their patients' desire to use telephonic interpreters" (Cunningham et al, Journal of the National Medical Association, April 2008).