Team Spotlight: Home Dialysis Program

by Raiili Pellizzari March 14, 2025

(Top) TBRHSC’s Home Dialysis Team on their recent trip to Pikangikum First Nation. (Bottom) A complete hemodialysis setup in a northern community.

March is Kidney Health Month, and we want to raise awareness about kidney disease and its impact on the people of Northwestern Ontario. Throughout the month, we will be featuring members of the Renal team at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), and highlight the incredible care they provide for renal patients across our region.

For more information on Renal Services at TBRHSC, and to view educational videos for renal patients and their families, click HERE.

Home Dialysis Program

“Being a Peritoneal Dialysis nurse is very rewarding. I am able to teach a patient to do dialysis in order to get them home safely to their own community. While on home visits in Pikangikum, I found it very fulfilling to be able to see the patients we trained performing dialysis on their own and be able to stay within their community while supporting them from afar. If we could not provide dialysis at home, they would have to relocate their entire family out of their home community to receive the treatment they need. It is very important to us to keep them as close to home as possible.”

– Michelle Debesys, Registered Nurse, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) Peritoneal Dialysis Team

“The Renal Biomedical Engineering Technologists are responsible for maintaining equipment in three dialysis units within Northwestern Ontario: Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre and Riverside Health Care Facilities in Fort Frances. Additionally, the team is responsible for the TBRHSC Home Hemodialysis program. This includes an assessment of a patient’s home, coordinating plumbing and electrical services, installation of a dialysis machine and a portable reverse osmosis unit into a patient’s home, followed by maintenance of the equipment. With a catchment area the size of France, access to these patients uses all forms of transportation; planes, trains, automobiles, boats, skidoos and quads”.

– Mike Smit, Senior Renal Biomedical Engineering Technologist, TBRHSC

“Home Hemodialysis (HHD) nurses first meet with patients and their families to provide HHD information. This meeting helps guide the patient through their decision-making process and to assess if HHD is the right dialysis option for them. Once a person has chosen HHD, the nurses provide approximately eight weeks of training which includes education on renal disease, self-physical assessments, diet, medications, and all aspects of independent/supported dialysis care.

The goal of HHD is to help patients stay in their home or repatriate to their home community where they can live within their spiritual, cultural and traditional lifestyle surrounded by their support system while meeting their dialysis needs.”

– Lauri-Ann Vester, Registered Nurse, TBRHSC Home Hemodialysis Team