With regard to general disaster preparedness, 58 percent said they had enough bottled water at home to last for three days while 54 percent said they had enough food and water for three days. Forty-eight percent said they had 75 percent of the items on a disaster preparedness checklist recommended by the Department of Homeland Security while 38 percent said they had both food and water for three days and 75 percent of the checklist items. Only 31 percent said they had collected all of these items into a disaster preparation bag or kit, as this checklist recommends.

In terms of dialysis-specific preparations, despite annual disaster preparedness education provided by the dialysis facilities, only 57 percent of patients understood what they needed to do for a renal emergency diet and only 6 percent had kayexalate, a drug used to treat increased amounts of potassium in the body, at home. Forty-three percent knew of other dialysis centers where they could get treatment if their current center was out of service and 42 percent said they had sufficient medical records at home with treatment information that they could provide to a new center.

The study concludes that most survey respondents were unprepared for a potential disaster and therefore more efforts to address preparedness education techniques are warranted. The study authors note that the unpreparedness found in their study is in all likelihood not unique to North Carolina and is thought to be similar to the level of preparedness found among dialysis patients across the country.

SOURCE University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine