Incremental Hemodialysis for Veterans in the First Year of Dialysis (IncHVets)

Inclusion Criteria: * Adult Veterans diagnosed with ESRD and who will soon need chronic dialysis initiation or have initiated hemodialysis (HD) not longer than 8 weeks of the target randomization day in one of the six VA centers * Meeting the incremental dialysis eligibility criteria in Table 4\* under the IncHVets Study Protocol * Willingness to undergo the randomly assigned modality of 2x/week vs. 3x/week HD * Willingness to attend the baseline and quarterly study tests in the dialysis unit or via telehealth as determined by study staff, which will mostly be parallel to the routine dialysis clinic visits * Agreeable to receive monthly or more frequent reviews for and interviews, regardless of being assigned to the incremental or conventional dialysis group * As shown in Table 4 of the INCHVETS Study protocol under incremental dialysis criteria, eligible subjects must have a urine output \>0.5 L/day (liters per day) and urea clearance (KRU) \>3 ml/min (milliliters per minute) and meet 5 or more of the 9 other incremental dialysis criteria, which are derived from the 2014 Incremental Dialysis Consensus paper (Kalantar-Zadeh et al. Twice-weekly and incremental hemodialysis treatment for initiation of kidney replacement therapy. Am J Kidney Dis. 2014 Aug;64(2):181-6. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2014.04.019. PMID: 24840669 PMCID: PMC4111970) Exclusion Criteria: * Having a terminal illness with a life expectancy less than 6 months such as stage 4 metastatic cancer or having signed for hospice with life expectancy less than 6 months * A serum potassium level \>6.0 mEq/L (milliequivalents per liter) during the 4 weeks prior to the study start