Croí Health receives $2.5 million from Alan McKim to support hospice care 
MassNonprofit News; Press Release; 2/10/26 
As part of a longstanding commitment to Croí Health, Alan McKim is donating $2.5 million to Voices: The Campaign for Patient Care Access to support hospice care. ... The Voices campaign addresses the vital need to expand care. Amidst an unprecedented national healthcare crisis, support for community-based healthcare organizations has never been more critical. “I am honored to stand with Croí Health as they continue to set ambitious goals to expand access to patient care,” said McKim, founder of Clean Harbors. In year three of the campaign, Croí Health has raised $16.3 million of a $20 million goal already raised in its third year. This $2.5 million donation is the largest campaign gift to date.

CommonSpirit Health at Home’s ‘aggressive’ hospice growth strategy for 2026 and beyond 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 2/10/26 
Continuing its de novo- and joint venture-based blueprint for growth, home health and hospice provider CommonSpirit Health at Home is also setting plans in motion to engage patients further upstream for earlier hospice enrollment, when appropriate. CommonSpirit Health at Home is the home-based care arm of the nonprofit health system CommonSpirit Health, which operates more than 2,200 care sites across 24 states. Hospice News caught up with CommonSpirit Health at Home CEO Trisha Crissman at the Home Care 100 conference in Scottsdale, Arizona to discuss CommonSpirit Health at Home’s strategic plans for 2026, as well as the top trends and market forces shaping the hospice community.

Expanding access to compassionate hospice care in Northern Virginia 
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington; Press Release; 1/27/26 
We are excited and proud to share that JSSA, a longtime Federation partner, is expanding its hospice services to Northern Virginia—an important step in ensuring individuals and families in our region have access to high-quality, community-based end-of-life care when it matters most. ... For more than 40 years, JSSA has been a trusted provider of hospice care in Montgomery County, supporting patients and families with expert clinical care alongside emotional and spiritual support. This expansion builds on JSSA’s more than 45 years of serving Northern Virginia through mental health services, aging-in-place programs, and its Holocaust Survivor Program.

[United Kingdom] 100 nights of hospice care funded by one supporter’s generosity 
ehospice; 2/6/26 
One hundred nights of expert end-of-life care will be provided by Treetops Hospice, thanks to the generosity of a single supporter’s monthly donation. Paul Wilcox from Breaston, affectionately known as ‘Pushbike Paul’, has supported the charity since 2014, raising over £80,000 through his recycled bike scheme. Now, his latest contribution – a regular monthly Direct Debit – will fund a further 100 nights of Hospice at Home care. ... Paul said: “One of the comments we hear most often when collecting or receiving bikes is how wonderful the Hospice at Home nurses are, and what a difference they made at the end of their loved one’s life. They are forever grateful for the service provided by Treetops and that’s why I have chosen to set up this payment.”

Community supports Hospice East despite winter weather 
The Winchester Sun, Winchester, KY;  by John Chaney; 2/8/26 
Despite a fresh layer of snow from the night before, a steady stream of supporters filled the Winchester Elks Lodge #2816 on Saturday, February 7, 2026, for its monthly charity breakfast fundraiser benefiting Hospice East. ... The Elks Lodge hosts various buffet breakfasts on the first Saturday of each month from September through March, with all proceeds going to a selected local charity. ...  “Hospice does so much good for grieving families and it’s a great organization to give back to,” Johnson said of this month’s recipient. ... Approximately 15 volunteers helped prepare and serve the meal, working toward the lodge’s typical goal of raising about $3,500 per event.
Editor's Note: These kinds of community fundraisers raise more than money—they raise memories. Sharing a meal together evokes meaning around the tables: among those preparing the food, those serving it, and those who come simply to be present. In these gatherings, people experience both giving and receiving at the same time. While the dollar amounts may be smaller than those of large galas, the measure of meaning is immeasurable.

Tell us more: Episode 3-Shirley Otis-Green
Journal of Palliative Medicine; by Shirley Otis-Green, MSW, MA, ACSW, LCSW, OSW-CE, FNAP, FAOSW, Yilong Peng, MD, William E. Rosa, PhD, MBE, APRN, and Richard E. Leiter, MD, MA; 2/9/26 
The Journal of Palliative Medicine’s “Tell Us More: The Palliative Care Oral History Project,” seeks to tell the story of Hospice and Palliative Care through informal interviews with pivotal leaders in the field. In each episode, hosts Drs. Ricky Leiter and Billy Rosa, along with research assistant Dr. Yilong Peng, sit down with an HAPC luminary and do what our field does best—ask questions, listen, and reflect. In the third episode, Drs. Leiter and Rosa interviewed Ms. Shirley Otis-Green, founder of Collaborative Caring and a pioneer in palliative social work. What follows is a transcript of their conversation, edited lightly for clarity.

Hospice doctor shares what happens in the moments immediately after death 
Good; by Adam Albright Hanna; 2/3/26 
Throughout human history, one question has bewildered every civilization, society, and individual. What happens after we die? For some people, it is a question for science. For others, it is a question of faith. But for Dr. B.J. Miller, it is a question that he is totally fine not knowing the answer to. Miller is a hospice and palliative care physician at the University of California, San Francisco. He is one of the world's leading voices on dignified death, and for him, the end of life is actually about the living. ... "I’ve been around people who are just about to die," Miller said. "Bodies that have just died. And there is this lingering sense, it’s true. There’s a feeling. It’s a palpable... yeah, there’s a lingering." ... "I didn’t need to have control over everything, I didn’t need to know the answers anymore. I mean, I love not knowing. The answer’s unimportant. It’s just a sacred and gorgeous moment."
Editor's Note: Having served in direct hospice patient care from 1993–2002, I was present with many persons during their active dying and in the moments just after death, including attending deaths as a chaplain. Over time—and especially through the intimate experience of my parents’ deaths—that sense of sacredness Dr. Miller describes remains real for me. So I find myself wondering and asking non-clinical leaders: when you look at Average Daily Census (ADC), Length of Stay (LOS), and other familiar metrics, what do you see? Numbers on a spreadsheet? Or living measures of something immeasurably human—something that truly matters?

Hospice patient wish: Pilot to give area man his first airplane flight 
Journal-News, Dayton Daily News, Ohio; by Michael Kurtz; 2/10/26 
James Whitehead has not experienced the feeling of leaving the ground in flight. On Thursday, the local hospice patient will get to check at least one more thing off his bucket list when he flies for the first time, thanks to a Warren County pilot and the help of his hospice staff. “Before he passes, he wanted to feel a takeoff,” said Stephanie Crase, senior administrator for Advanced Home Health and Hospice. The hospice staff has been granting bucket list wishes for 10 years, allowing patients to fulfill some dreams in their final days.

Experiencing grief this Valentine's Day? VITAS® Healthcare launches Valentine Helpline in Florida 
PR Newswire, Miramar, FL; by VITAS Healthcare; 2/10/26 
As Valentine's Day approaches, a time often associated with love and connection, many people experience heightened feelings of grief, loneliness or emotional strain after the loss of a loved one or while anticipating an impending loss. To support those navigating these complex emotions, VITAS Healthcare will host a Valentine Helpline on Saturday, Feb. 14, offering free, confidential grief support to Florida residents.

Positive experiences of seriously ill lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons and their partners with healthcare providers: Project Respect 
American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Cathy Berkman, PhD, MSW, Gary L. Stein, JD, MSW, Noelle Marie Javier, MD, Kimberly D. Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, David Godfrey, JD, Sean O’Mahony, MD, Shail Maingi, MD, Carey Candrian, PhD, Christian González-Rivera, MUP, Imani Woody, PhD, and William E. Rosa, PhD; 1/24/26 
Results: There were numerous reports of respectful, affirming, and competent care, including: healthcare providers who were open about discussing a respondent’s LGBTQ+ identity and their specific health concerns; intake and assessment forms that included pre-specified choices for sexual orientations and gender identities; using correct names, pronouns, and gender; healthcare providers who identified as LGBTQ+ or signaled being an ally; and treating spouses, partners, and widows respectfully and including them in decision-making.

How an ethics course can prep you for med school: It can strengthen communication and empathy and help with complex treatment and research decisions. 
U.S. News & World; by Neha Raju; 2/10/26 
Medical school applicants often focus on the most tangible parts of preparation: grades, MCAT scores, clinical hours and research. Ethics courses, when considered at all, are sometimes treated as peripheral or “nice to have” rather than genuinely useful. That view misses how central ethical reasoning has become ...

• It Gives You a Structured Framework for Complex Decisions ...
• It Strengthens Communication and Empathy, Not Just Moral Reasoning ...
• It Deepens Your Understanding of Justice and Health Systems Realities ...
• It Builds Ethical Literacy for Research and Academic Medicine ...

Editor's Note: Ethics education is not ancillary—it is foundational, particularly in hospice and palliative care. Its value extends beyond physicians to the entire interdisciplinary team, and to non-clinical business leaders whose decisions shape care, access, and culture. Ethical reasoning strengthens communication, deepens empathy, and equips professionals at every level to navigate complexity with integrity.

There is a popular fallacy that falling down is the mark of a poor skater. But the truth is when one stops falling, he has probably stopped improving. ~ Dick Button, first US Olympic figure skating champion athe the 1948 Winter Olympics