Nursing homes in FL that offer PD?

My 87 year old mother is currently in a nursing home in IN that sets up her PD; my sister checks in daily and helps if needed.

However, we will soon have no family there so we are trying to locate a nursing home around the Sarasota, FL area that offer PD and have not found any. The ones we’ve contacted say residents have to do hemo. She can’t do Hemo because it’s too hard on her. Her current social workers and nurses are unable to help.

How can we find one, or what should people do who need care and PD support? Thanks!

I’ve that the ESRD Network of Florida is not aware of any nursing homes in Florida that provide peritoneal dialysis to their residents. This is very disheartening as I know there have to be people like your mother who do better on PD than on standard in-center hemodialysis.
When dialysis is done 3 times a week for 3-4 hours, it can be hard on the body because often too much fluid is taken off too fast. Doing dialysis more days or for longer periods can reduce symptoms.

DaVita, one of the two largest dialysis companies, has started offering dialysis in some nursing homes. I don’t know if they do it 3 or more days a week. You can read about that here:

Another company provides hemodialysis in some nursing homes in Florida is called Dialyze Direct. I’ve heard their staff do shorter treatments 5 days a week, which may be easier on your mom. You can read and contact them at https://www.dialyzedirect.com/.

Another source of information about which nursing homes, if any, offer any kind of dialysis is the agency that surveys dialysis clinics - Agency for Health Care Administration of Florida. Call (888) 419-3456 and ask to talk with a state surveyor that inspects dialysis clinics or nursing homes. Here’s the website - http://www.ahca.myflorida.com/.

If the move to Florida is required, PD isn’t available in any Florida nursing home, and she and the family don’t want her to do hemodialysis, could she live with a family member who gets training to do PD. If she needs help doing activities of daily living, she might be able to get physical and/or occupational therapy if her doctor orders it and with the she could get occasional help from a home health aide. There’s also a program through Medicaid for people with limited income who need help at home called Home and Community Based Services. It provides occasional services to people in their home to keep them independent and out of a nursing home.

I hope something works out for your mom as I can only imagine how much stress this has placed on you and her.

I appreciate this response. I’m following up with dialyze direct and reached out to FL complaint line. They were unaware of PD being done in FL nursing homes, but recommended I call facilities directly.

So far, no luck.

Living with family is not an option as we don’t have any members that can be a full time caregiver. She is now going on Medicaid.

The more I think about this, the more unethical I think it is to allow an elderly pt with an elderly stage 4 cancer caregiver to start PD when it’s a therapy that skilled nursing facilities do not support.

Like you, I wish more nursing facilities would admit and treat patients on peritoneal dialysis. Some companies have found a way to provide staff-assisted hemodialysis in nursing homes. One factor that makes it harder to offer PD in a nursing home is that when a patient can’t do his/her own treatment, a trained nurse needs to either perform PD exchanges 4 or more times a day manually or connect the patient to a machine and monitor it for alarms overnight while the patient sleeps. From what I’ve heard, staffing is an issue in nursings homes and all healthcare settings. It shouldn’t be this way, but people often choose where to live based on where they can get the healthcare services they need. If the FL move is necessary, you could contact the Florida Nursing Home Ombudsman program or FL Elder Law linked on the site below to see if either can offer any suggestions.