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Abstract Background and Aims Acute kidney injury (AKI) has a significant impact on inpatient hospital admissions costing the NHS in the UK an estimated £1bn. Hospitalisation complicated by AKI results in increased length of stay and mortality and up to a fifth of discharged patients are readmitted to hospital within 30 days. Traditionally district general hospitals in the UK have limited nephrology cover. In our large district general hospital, a new nephrologist led AKI clinic was established to review patients whose inpatient admissions were complicated by a stage 2 or 3 AKI. Over a 7-month period the aim was to evaluate this new clinic and its impact for local patients and the hospital trust. Method Inpatients with stage 2 and 3 AKI were identified by a specialist AKI nurse and nephrologist as suitable for the clinic. A discharge summary was generated with the stage and cause of AKI. Patients were seen within 6 weeks of discharge by either a nephrologist or a specialist AKI nurse. Data was retrospectively collected, and this included diagnosis, causes of AKI, highest stage of AKI, progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and referral to tertiary chronic kidney disease services. Using the hospital's own AKI dashboard, we looked at 30-day readmission rates of all AKIs and overall hospital length of stay over this period. Results Retrospective data was collected for 245 patients who attended the clinic over 7 months. 43.9% had a stage 3 AKI, 41.4% had a stage 2 AKI, the remainder of patients were CKD patients with progression or had an underlying glomerular pathology. The most common cause for AKI was hypovolaemia (41.8%) followed by infection/sepsis (37.7%). Most AKIs fully resolved (58.1%), 7% of patients had not resolved and 27% partially resolved. 12.3% of patients were referred onto nephrology tertiary services. Over the course of the 7 months, the trend of 30-day readmission rates dropped from 18.2% to 10.1% (Fig. 1). There was no significant change in hospital length of stay. Conclusion The nephrology led AKI clinic has had a meaningful impact in our post discharge patient care. We have been able to review patients in a timely manner providing them with a holistic approach. A significant number of patients were identified and referred early for specialist tertiary CKD management. Over the 7-month period there was a reduction in 30-day readmission rates however it has not yet affected overall length of stay. This study supports a nephrologist led AKI clinic in a district general hospital.
Khandaker et al. (Wed,) studied this question.