Clinical Guidelines in Practice: How Well are Primary Care Providers Following National Chronic Kidney Disease Recommendations?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), prevalent in more the 10% of the United States population is a progressive, degenerative disease affecting the renal function of afflicted individuals. In recent decades CKD has gained awareness among clinicians and medical professional due to growing concern for the many complications that arise in patients with CKD. For providers, CKD patient populations pose a significant challenge in terms of quality treatment because of the many associated risk factors and co-morbidities associated with a CKD diagnosis. The KDIGO (Kidney Disease; Improving Global Outcomes) 2012 clinical guidelines for the treatment of CKD were published under the sponsorship of the National Kidney Foundation in order to create uniform measures aimed to improve quality care and effective treatment of the CKD population. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which these measures are being implemented and adhered to among providers at the practice level. Analysis of adherence to six specific measures of the KDIGO guidelines offers insight into the areas of implementation strengths and weaknesses. Results of this study indicate a widespread variation in the level of adherence to each measure on the practice level as well as variation among individual providers to each measure. While adherence levels were high among providers for certain measures, high adherence was not uniform across all six measures. Results of this study indicate the potential for improvement in CKD treatment through the use of centralized implementation structures such as practice based research networks (PBRN) or practice facilitation in order to generate higher adherence to all six KDIGO measures

Clinical Guidelines in Practice: How Well are Primary Care Providers Following National Chronic Kidney Disease Recommendations?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), prevalent in more than 10% of the United States population, is a progressive, degenerative disease affecting the renal function of afflicted individuals. CKD has gained awareness among clinicians due to growing concern about the many complications that arise in patients with CKD. The KDIGO (Kidney Disease; Improving Global Outcomes) 2012 clinical guidelines for the treatment of CKD created uniform measures aimed to improve quality care and effective treatment of the CKD population. This study investigates the extent to which these measures are being implemented and adhered to among providers at the practice level