Here’s the brochure for the Medisystems’ Access Alert. You should give them a call or you can try one of the distributors.
Already tried that.
They would not sell to me as I did not have a Dialysis Account whatever that means. I was able to register and buy them only for the order to be cancelled a day later. It was upsetting because no where did it say you had to have special criteria to purchase them.
MM
You might want to talk with your home training nurse about this product and see if the clinic can order it for you. You could offer to pay for it if the clinic balks at the cost.
I actually was sent a sample of this device around the time my clinic got a Transonic, so did not get more info on the Access Alert at that time. There were no directions with It, it is small and made out of plastic, sort of looks like a child’s toy. it did not seem like a serious medical device for detecting stenosis as did the Transonic. But if it works that’s all that matters.
As I posted recently, I hope we are getting closer to a webinar on access care plans. This subject has concerned me for a long time. My most important resource, my lifeline, remains at serious risk as my clinic, like a lot of clinics, has no access care plan in place. They used the Transonic for a short time, but then they said they were too busy to continue the monthly testing. I recently read where a patient from another state said they found in their clinic that Transonic testing was not always accurate anyway.
So, I continue to hope that a webinar on this subject will occur soon. I will call to see what info I can find out on the Access Alert. I know Medisystem’s reps used to be very generous as far as educating me when I would call with questions. But at one point, I was told they could no longer speak to patients directly for reasons of liability- only clinic docs/nurses. For some odd reason, none of the nephs or nurses I have ever had would make calls like this to obtain dialysis education for me. Awfully strange, I don’t know why??? Most dialysis education/info I have ever gotten was due to me scratching for info on the net, speaking with dialysis professionals unrelated to my clinc or calling a dialysis related co, directly etc.
I will be so glad when I can finally put this subject to rest once I get the accurate info I have been searching for. This should be basic dialysis info, but believe it or not, some clinics leave their patients wide open when it comes to an access care plan, and I have had the misfortune of being in these kinds of clinics. It amazes me that I have not nailed down this info long before now, but my access has been pumping along with no problems for years (of that I can be most thankful), so I addressed other tx problems that were more urgent at the time. Yet what could be more important than having an access care plan in place?
Can our resident research expert locate the vascular access portion of this document? It has been suggested it might have a section on vascular access care plans mandated as of 08’.