The transitional care unit (TCU) focuses on providing a supportive environment in which incident dialysis patients, and their caregivers and care partners, can learn about all aspects of home hemodialysis over a period of several weeks. Within a dialysis center, TCUs can be stand-alone units, or they can be integrated into existing units. The objective of a TCU is to ease the pathway from CKD to ESRD with frequent, customized doses of hemodialysis and encourage all suitable patients to consider home hemodialysis to meet their medical and lifestyle goals.

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Value-Based kidney care refers to a model of comprehensive management of patients with kidney disease, from CKD through ESRD, dialysis and transplantation. The model is physician driven with risk being shifted from payer to the physician group, and it features customized, patient-centric care with the goal of improving outcomes and quality of life while reducing cost. Providers range from venture-backed care providers to large dialysis organizations.

Some value-based kidney care providers utilize advanced health analytics, including machine-learning based algorithms, to identify high-risk patients in order to bring them under the care of a nephrologist early and potentially avoid or delay onset of ESRD. If dialysis is necessary, all suitable patients are encouraged to consider home therapies; the transitional care unit (TCU) model is thus highly compatible with the goals of value-based kidney care.
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According to 2018 USRDS data, hemodialysis patients spent about 11 days/year in the hospital in 2016 on average [1]. Additionally, studies report a prevalence of unplanned dialysis between 40% and 60% [2], many of which result in the patient initiating dialysis in the hospital setting. Given the varied population of patients receiving hemodialysis in a hospital, a need exists for hemodialysis machines that can be easily transported and that integrate easily into cramped bedside settings while delivering even the intense dialysis doses associated with typical thrice-weekly in-center hemodialysis (IHD).

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