FOR PATIENTS AND CAREGIVERS
Stay Safe. Stay Prepared. Never Miss Life-Sustaining Treatment.
Emergencies can disrupt dialysis treatment and make it harder to get to a clinic or receive care on schedule. Planning ahead helps patients maintain continuity of care and reduce delays during unexpected events.
Potential disruptions may include:
- Severe weather, including hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes, flooding, extreme heat, earthquakes, and wildfires
- Power outages, transportation disruptions, and facility access issues
- Cyber incidents, chemical incidents, public health emergencies, and other events that affect health care services
What Do I Do?
Before an emergency
- Know how to contact your clinic and nephrologist
- Maintain a 14-day supply of medication
- Prepare an emergency kit
- Identify backup transportation
- Register for emergency alerts
During an emergency
- Contact your dialysis clinic first
- Seek an alternate facility if necessary
- Contact your ESRD Network if applicable
- Call 911 for life-threatening emergencies
Hazard-specific guidance:
Where Do I Go?
It is important to know what to do if your dialysis facility is closed
- Use the map to find other dialysis facilities nearby
- Contact your provider to assist you with finding an open facility
- Go to the hospital if you are experiencing a medical emergency
Who Do I Call?
Always have a list of phone numbers available in case of emergency
- Call 911 if you are experiencing a medical emergency
- Family and friends
- Your dialysis clinic
- ESRD Network
- Transportation provider
Say this to your team:
“Tell me what I should do when the clinic is closed, my ride is canceled or you cannot reach me. Help me make a plan that works with the resources I actually have.”
FOR FACILITIES
Coordinate. Communicate. Support Continuity of Care.
For providers, preparedness comes down to what happens with each patient. Your team build readiness into everyday care – mapping each patient’s risks ahead of time, preparing them for outages, evacuations, and supply disruptions, and rehearsing a plan you have already tested, so everyone knows it will hold up when things get difficult.
Key areas include:
- Situational awareness: Current emergency conditions, alerts, and facility status updates
- Patient access issues: Work with your ESRD Network and KHARES for access of care challenges, such as transportation barriers, missed treatments, relocation needs, and continuity-of-care concerns
- Partner coordination: Communication with ESRD Networks, emergency management, health care coalitions, and other response partners
- Emergency resources: Tools, guidance, contacts, and reporting resources to support timely decision-making
What Do I Do?
Before an emergency
- Review hazards affecting the facility and patients’ access to it
- Use a patient outreach assessment covering clinical, functional, social, and access needs
- Maintain tested primary and backup contact lists
- Communicate the facility plan with the staff, patients, and physicians
- Do not forget the home modalities
During and after an emergency
- Follow your emergency plan and instructions from local emergency services
- Confirm all conditions are safe to resume care
- Maintain good communication with team, patients, physicians, and support partners
Where Do I Go?
Before an emergency
- Determine if it will be safe to stay or need to relocate
- Follow applicable emergency evacuation orders
- Review Home dialysis backup options
During and after an emergency
- Review access of care challenges and if an alternate location is required
- Assess if the community can support resuming treatment services
- Availability of emergency services (Fire, EMS, Police)
- Hospital emergency services available
- Status of water, power, and sewer services
Who Do I Call?
Before an emergency
- Review and update emergency contact information, especially cell phone numbers
- Communicate facility plans to staff, physicians and patients, all modalities
- Keep your leadership team and Medical Director informed
- Notify your ESRD Network and State agencies, as applicable
During and after an emergency
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Facility status
- Operational plans
- Support needs
FOR ESRD NETWORKS
Protect Patients. Maintain Operations. Preserve Continuity of Care.
Use this section for quick access to the tools and information ESRD Networks need to support emergency coordination and continuity of care.
Key resources include:
- Emergency reporting: Submit updates, document impacts, and share time-sensitive information with response partners
- Facility status updates: Monitor openings, closures, service interruptions, capacity concerns, and operational needs
- Resource requests: Identify and escalate requests related to staffing, supplies, transportation, patient placement, and other support needs
- Operational guidance: Access procedures, contacts, templates, and decision-making resources to support timely response and recovery actions
What Do I Do?
Before an emergency
- Review hazards that may affect the Network, dialysis facilities, and the patients’ access to them
- Verify adequate plans in place and backup Network support
- Maintain tested primary and backup contact lists
- Communicate the Network plan with applicable staff, KHARES, and facilities
- Include backup facility and offline plans
During and after an emergency
- Follow your Network emergency plan
- Maintain good communications with staff, dialysis providers, and support partners
- Operational status
- Plans in place
- Support needs
Where Do I Go?
Before an emergency
- Determine if it will be safe to stay or need to relocate
- Follow applicable emergency evacuation orders
- Review backup location and backup Network options
During and after an emergency
- Assess current situation and if alternate location is required
- Area safe
- Infrastructure to maintain operations (power, communications)
Who Do I Call?
Who Do I Call?
Before an emergency
- Review and update emergency contact information, especially cell phone numbers
- Communicate facility plans to staff, physicians and patients, all modalities
- Keep your leadership team and Medical Director informed
- Notify your ESRD Network and State agencies, as applicable
During and after an emergency
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Facility status
- Operational plans
- Support needs