Somerset hospice opening delayed by Medicare move 
The Tribune-Democrat, Somerset, PA; by Kelly Urban; 6/20/26 
Following a ribbon-cutting in May for the reopening of the Somerset inpatient hospice facility, Windber Hospice at Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber has provided an update regarding the facility’s opening timeline. While the facility remains on track to reopen, the opening has been delayed by a recently announced nationwide Medicare enrollment moratorium affecting new hospice enrollments and hospice locations. ... “We know many families have been eagerly anticipating the return of inpatient hospice care in Somerset County, and we share their disappointment in this unexpected delay,” said Richard Sukenik, CEO of Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber. “We are actively working with local, state and federal legislators to seek assistance and ensure they understand the importance of bringing this service back to Somerset County. We will continue pursuing every available avenue to move this project forward while preparing to welcome patients as soon as approval is granted.” [Access to the full article may be limited by a paywall.]

Leading with care 
WilmingtonBiz, Wilmington, NC; by Beth A. Klahre; 6/22/26 
Following a nationwide search, Karen Brubaker Miller was named president and CEO of Lower Cape Fear LifeCare this spring, becoming just the fourth CEO in the organization’s 46-year history. ... Miller said she plans to continue to grow palliative care services. In addition, with $5 million from the New Hanover Community Endowment, LifeCare will also administer The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Program, a Medicare initiative launched in July 2024. Looking further ahead, Miller hopes to expand LifeCare’s geographic reach while building on the services in place.

The illusion of choice at the end of life 
Huffpost Personal; by Jennifer Obel, MD; 6/21/26 
After the hospice nurse increased my mother’s morphine drip to ease the feeling of drowning, my mom never spoke to me again. By then, her metastatic lung cancer had taken nearly everything: her strength, her vigor, her independence. What remained was breathlessness that came in waves, each one more frightening than the last. The morphine was meant to quiet her panic and soften the feeling of suffocation. It did. It also closed the door on any final conversation. I was both daughter and oncologist, and the weight of those roles was devastating. I understood what was happening physiologically from decades of treating patients. That knowledge did nothing to make it easier to sit at her bedside, waiting for her to wake, unsure if she could hear me or say goodbye. ...

End of life nurse appeals for homemade property bags 
Nursing In Practice; by Gee Harland; 6/17/26 
An end of life nurse is leading an initiative to return patient belongings to families in homemade bags. Lead nurse Debbie Williams at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust was struck by how ‘awful’ she felt carrying her mother’s belongings home from hospital in a plastic bag after her death in 2014. She was inspired to start an appeal calling for homemade bags to be donated to replace the plastic patient bags – noting how it is the ‘simple things that make the difference.

As a doctor and a daughter, finding gratitude amid loss on Father’s Day 
The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, MD; by Jean Marbella; 6/21/26 
As a physician who specializes in palliative care, Dr. Delia Chiaramonte helps patients, families and medical professionals deal with the stresses and demands that come with serious and often terminal illnesses. Then, her own father died. "I thought I knew what this experience would be like," she said. "It is much more nuanced." On this, her second Father's Day without her own father, Chiaramonte taps into both her lived and professional experiences to offer advice on a holiday for those feeling more bereft than celebratory.

Dying without a safety net 
MedCityNews; by Darren Schulte; 6/21/26 
Recently, I reviewed the case of a woman with advanced metastatic breast cancer – we’ll call her Helen. ... As one therapy after another failed, Helen cycled in and out of the hospital: complications from treatment, complications from the cancer itself, and each time the system responded the only way it knew how – rapid escalation, ICU stays, more procedures, more drugs. Finally, a palliative care team was consulted during her last hospitalization. After long family meetings, Helen was discharged to hospice and died days later. Throughout that final year, Helen suffered. No one on her medical team had documented her wishes, preferences, or goals of care. No one had walked her through the trade-offs she faced with each treatment decision. The system did what it was designed to do, and it failed her completely. 

Cracks in the AI crystal ball: why clinical prediction tools fall short in the real world 
Journal of General Internal Medicine; by David Gamble MD, Andrew Wong MD, MS and Amiran Baduashvili, MD; 6/22/26 
... In this issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Patel and colleagues evaluate the real-world performance of five Epic predictive AI tools: the Deterioration Index, Sepsis Model, Unplanned Readmission Model, End-of-Life Care Index, and Patient No-Show Model. Their systematic review and meta-analysis, encompassing 22 studies and over two million patients, focused on the models’ ability to distinguish between patients who ultimately did and did not experience a specific outcome—a property known as discrimination.

Dying patients shouldn’t have to choose between dia­lysis care and com­fort 
The Boston Globe, Boston, MA; by Patricia Ramsden; 6/22/26 
... Medi­care cur­rently requires most end-stage kid­ney fail­ure patients to choose between dia­lysis and hos­pice bene­fits. ... People dying from other ter­minal ill­nesses do not face this harsh choice. For sev­eral years, Dia­lysis Clinic, Inc. (DCI), the only national not-for-profit dia­lysis organ­iz­a­tion, has col­lab­or­ated with not-for-profit hos­pice organ­iz­a­tions to offer con­cur­rent pal­li­at­ive dia­lysis and hos­pice care to selec­ted patients in Ten­nessee and West­ern Pennsylvania. A 2026 col­lab­or­a­tion between DCI and Care Dimen­sions, the largest hos­pice pro­vider in the state, expan­ded that model to East­ern Mas­sachu­setts. However, this innov­at­ive pro­gram, rely­ing on phil­an­thropic fund­ing, remains avail­able only to a few patients.

Father's Day flashback: Son's pitch to ailing dad to take in a game becomes gift for both 
The Dallas Morning News; by Evan Grant; 6/21/26 
I took my father to a baseball game Friday. It was his last. He is 87, dying from congestive heart failure and has been in the care of a hospice nurse for two months. We know what lies ahead shortly. And yet, this is not a sad story. Not in the least. Some 40 years ago, just down the block in what is now a parking lot, my dad introduced me to Major League Baseball. ... He opened a door to a world that has become my passion and my life. I wanted to simply try and repay him by taking him to one game as a way of saying thanks. It was going to be my Father's Day gift to him. Instead, it is about a gift he gave me.

Cincinnati Children's opened 6 locations in 2025. Here's why 
Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, OH; by Carly Gist; 6/12/2026 
Cincinnati Children's is expanding its access to care across the region, including in Northern Kentucky. The health system reported in its latest Community Impact Report, released to the public June 9, that six new locations opened in 2025, including facilities in previously underserved communities such as Clermont and Clinton counties. Rural areas often have limited access to specialized and emergency care, placing residents at a higher risk of health challenges and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

1907-1916: 250 Years - A History of Care
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy Berger; for 6/23/26
Read details and explore source links

• The Flexner Report, Medical Education in the United States and Canada – A Report to The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1910
  
  
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, New York City, Garment District, 1911
  
  
• RMS Titanic (1912) and the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS – 1914)

There is not human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt