Enrol a Patient and Write the Dialysis Prescription

A dialysis patient needs three things on file before treatment can run safely: a place on the programme (enrolment), a way to reach the bloodstream (vascular access), and the nephrologist’s orders for how each treatment is run (the prescription). This guide sets all three up. Enrolment and the prescription are the nephrologist’s job — the order side; the nurse keeps the access register.

Who / when: Dr. Okonkwo, the nephrologist (kidney physician), enrols the patient and writes the prescription; Halima Sani, the dialysis nurse, registers the vascular access. This happens once at the start of care and again whenever the orders change.

We will follow a chronic kidney patient onto the programme.

Enrol the patient

1. Nephrologist — open Dialysis → Dialysis Patients and press “Enrol Patient”. (A patient referred from the chart is already here — open their row instead and skip to the prescription.)
2. Nephrologist — search for and pick the patient, then set the Care Type — Chronic (ESRD) for end-stage renal disease, or Acute — and the Modality: Haemodialysis (HD), Haemodiafiltration (HDF) or Peritoneal Dialysis (PD). Name yourself as the nephrologist, add the renal diagnosis and the patient’s dry weight (their target weight with no excess fluid). Save.
3. Veona — the patient appears on the register in the Active state with a programme enrolment number. A patient can hold only one active enrolment at a time.

Register the vascular access

4. Dialysis Nurse — open the patient’s Renal Record (click the row) and go to the Vascular Access tab. Register the access: the type — arteriovenous fistula (AVF), arteriovenous graft (AVG), tunnelled or non-tunnelled catheter, or PD catheter — the site (for example Left radiocephalic), and the date it was created. A new fistula starts in the Maturing state until it is ready to use.

Write the prescription

5. Nephrologist — on the Prescriptions tab, press to add a prescription. Set the dialyser (the filter cartridge the blood passes through, for example Fresenius FX80), the target UF (the fluid volume to remove, in mL), the blood flow and dialysate flow rates, the anticoagulation (unfractionated heparin, LMWH, citrate, heparin-free or other), and the schedule — sessions per week and duration per session. Save.
6. Veona — the new prescription becomes the patient’s single Active prescription; any earlier one is superseded automatically. This is the order each scheduled session inherits.

Note

A patient has at most one active prescription. Writing a new one supersedes the previous — so the unit always runs against the current orders, with the history kept for the record.

Tip

Set the dry weight at enrolment. Each session compares the pre- and post-treatment weight against it, which is how the unit judges whether enough fluid was removed.

What happens next

With an enrolment, a registered access and an active prescription, the patient is ready to be scheduled. The nurse can now book their recurring sessions and the schedule board will offer the unit’s available chairs.

Follow the trail

• Previous: Receive a Renal Referral From the Chart
• Next: Schedule a Patient’s Recurring Sessions
• Related: Run a Dialysis Session and Record It