Kidney Thinking. The blog from Think Kidneys

As I sat down to write about data and Think Kidneys a headline flashed up. ‘Boots, Tesco and Superdrug to get access to NHS Medical Records’ The public concerns around how health data are handled remain topical and for many, a cause for concern. So what was this story about? It was about personal health data being transmitted from one health professional to another, in this…

So, what’s this Clinical Coding thing, and how can it help to improve the care of patients with AKI? All hospitals have a Clinical Coding Department, usually hidden away somewhere, and not many people know what it does, or what it’s for. Put simply Coders turn written information about a patient into a coded format so that it can be easily analysed and used for a…

As a nurse, I’m aware of a welcome “buzz” in the air when it comes to AKI. Its profile has significantly risen since the launch of the NICE AKI guidance in 2013, with the term AKI cropping up in patients’ notes and at shift handovers at an ever increasing rate. AKI quality standards and a national CQUIN have emerged in the past few months. Very importantly,…

‘Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink’ – I sometimes wonder if that’s how some patients and service users feel. Over the last five or six years I have become increasingly aware that dehydration is a common problem in many of our healthcare settings – hospitals and care homes – and yet the fact that patients and residents are becoming, or are already dehydrated,…

Most of my involvement over the last year as a member of the UK Renal Registry Patients’ Council has been with Think Kidneys. When I started I found a very different pace to previous experience. I received 20-30 emails a day and I didn’t understand most of them, or how to respond. It was like being thrown into a fast flowing river or coming in half…