Having a Primary Care Physician Reduces ED Use for Patients on Dialysis

THURSDAY, March 19, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Having a primary care physician reduces emergency department (ED) use among patients with end-stage kidney disease receiving dialysis, according to a study published online March 5 in JAMA Network Open.Kunal Bailoor, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined whether having a primary care practitioner is associated with a lower risk for hospitalization and ED utilization among patients with end-stage kidney disease. The analysis included 181,520 Medicare Fee for Service beneficiaries receiving dialysis from 2018 through 2019.The researchers found that patients estimated to have primary care involvement had a lower estimated risk for any ED visit not resulting in hospitalization (51.2 percent) versus those not estimated to have primary care involvement (72.1 percent). There was similarly a lower estimated risk for any ED visit (69.4 percent with primary care involvement versus 75.0 percent without). For any hospitalization, there was no significant difference in estimated risk."Given that primary care involvement may help reduce ED utilization, including partnerships with primary care practices may be one method to reduce total costs of care," the authors write. "Future models of care may benefit from explicitly incentivizing primary care involvement in patients with end-stage kidney disease."Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Having a Primary Care Physician Reduces ED Use for Patients on Dialysis

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