Table 2.

Panelists’ Impressions About the Impact of COVID-19 on Dialysis Practice Locally

	In your local practice region, how did/do the following differ during the early COVID-19 period compared with before COVID-19?a									Which changes will persist during the next year or beyond, compared with before COVID-19?
	No. of Kidney Transplants	Home Dialysis Use	Use of Telemedicine for Home Dialysis Support	Use of Urgent- or Acute-Start PDb	Treatment Time/wk for In-center HD Patientsc	Availability of Dialysis Access Procedures	Transportation to/From Dialysis Unitd	Morale Among In-center HD Patients	Morale Among Dialysis Unit Staff
Europe
Belgium	↓↓	–	↑↑	NA	–	–	↓	↓↓	↓	Greater use of telemedicine; mask use for all patients/staff over at least the next y; morale remains decreased
United Kingdom	↓↓	↑	↑↑	↑	↓	↓↓	↓	↓	↓↓	Greater use of telemedicine, home dialysis, and twice-weekly HD at initiation
Spain	↓↓	–	↑↑	–	↓	↓	↓	↓↓	↓↓	Some personnel have been diagnosed with posttraumatic syndrome
Italy	↓↓e	↑	↑	NA	–	–	↓↓	↓	↓↓	Greater use of telemedicine; we are recommending greater use of home therapy
Sweden	↓↓	–	↑	NA	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	Greater use of telemedicine; we are aiming to increase use of home therapy
France	↓↓	↑	↑	NA	↓	–	–	↓	↓	Morale remains decreased
Germany	↓	–	–	–	–	↓	↓	–	–	Home dialysis use will continue to grow
Americas
United States (Ann Arbor)	↓	–	↑↑	–	–	↓	–	↓	↓	Greater use of telemedicine
United States (N Y)	↓↓	↑	↑↑	↑↑	↓	↓↓	↓↓	↓↓	↓↓	Greater use of telemedicine
Brazil	↓↓	↓	↑↑	–	–	↓↓	↓	↓↓	↓↓	Greater use of telemedicine
Canada	↓↓	↓	↑	–	–	–	↓	–	↓	Greater use of telemedicine will persist, home dialysis use expected to increase
Asia
Saudi Arabia	↓↓	–	↑↑	NA	↓	↓	–	↓	↓	Greater use of telemedicine
Japan	↓↓	–	–	–	–	–	–	↑	↓↓	Longer-term changes not expected
Korea	–	–	–	NA	–	–	–	↓	–	Longer-term changes not expected
China	↓	–	–	↑	–	↓	↓	–	↓	Longer-term changes not expected
Thailand	↓↓	–	↑↑	↑	–	↓	↓	↓	↓	Telemedicine use will remain higher, and we will strive to increase use of urgent-/acute-start PD

Note: Panelists were asked to state impact on practice during the pandemic’s peak to date, as of August 2020.

Abbreviations: COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; HD, hemodialysis; NA, urgent or acute-start peritoneal dialysis is not available; PD, peritoneal dialysis.

^aAnswer options: markedly decreased/worsened (↓↓), somewhat decreased/worsened (↓), unchanged (–), somewhat increased/improved (↑), markedly increased/improved (↑↑) .

^bReference 56 provides another example of use of acute PD.

^cQuestion: How did treatment time per week change due to changes in prescription, adherence, availability of supplies, etc (↓ = shorter, ↑ = longer)?

^dQuestion: Did transportation of patients to/from the dialysis unit become easier (↑) or more challenging (↓)?

^eReference 8.