748 hospitals at risk of closure, state by state 
Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Molly Gamble; 3/6/25 
Nearly 750 rural U.S. hospitals are at risk of closure due to financial problems, with nearly half of those hospitals at immediate risk of closure. The count of 748 at-risk rural hospitals comes from the latest analysis from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, which is based on CMS' most recent hospital financial information. The center's analysis reveals two distinct levels of vulnerability among rural healthcare facilities: risk of closure and immediate risk of closure. In the first category, nearly every state has hospitals at risk of closure, measured by financial reserves that can cover losses on patient services for only six to seven years. In over half the states, 25% or more of rural hospitals face this risk, with 11 states having a majority of their rural hospitals in jeopardy. [Click on the title's link for the list.]
Editor's note: On July 5, 2024, we posted from the same source (Becker's Hospital CFO Report) that "Since January 2005, 192 rural hospitals have closed or converted ... Of those hospitals, 105 have completely closed, and 87 have converted, meaning the facilities no longer provide inpatient services, but continue to provide some services, such as primary care, skilled nursing care or long-term care. Since 2020, 36 hospitals have closed or converted. Find the list here. This jump in number since July 2024 is both dramatic and traumatic for our rural communities.

Social Media Toolkit for Social Work Month 2025 
NASW National Association of Social Workers; by NASW; for March 2025 
Celebrate Social Work Month 2025! People enter the social work profession because they genuinely care about other people. However, social workers have the education, training, and expertise to empower people so they can live to their full potential. That is why this year’s theme is Social Work: Compassion + Action. Here are our suggestions to help you share information about the positive work social workers do during Social Work Month 2025 and beyond.

• General Social Media Strategy
• Platform-Specific Tips
• Extra Visibility Tips

Editor's note: For more from The Alliance at Home Care, use their tags #SocialWorkMonth #StrongerTogether. For a great example from a hospice organization, see today's post "Helios Care honors hospice social workers."

Helios Care honors hospice social workers 
Allotsego,Oneonta NY; by Dan Ayres, President and Chief Executive Officer of Helios Care; 3/6/25
March is National Social Work Month, a time to recognize and honor the invaluable contributions of social workers across the country. The theme for National Social Work Month this year is “Compassion and Action,” which 100 percent sums up our team of social workers at Helios Care, the hospice for Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties. All social workers are indeed special, but hospice social work is very unique. ... Hospice social workers at Helios Care are trained to provide a holistic approach to end-of-life care, helping patients and their families navigate emotional, psychological, and practical challenges. Community education, bereavement counseling, bearing witness to those at end of life, practical assistance in the home and advanced care planning are just some of the duties of a hospice social worker. Thank a social worker this month—their work is truly remarkable.

VA in IM marks 75th anniversary as a mainstay for veterans’ care 
The Daily News, Iron Mountain, MI; by Betsy Bloom; 3/6/25 
A winter storm didn’t stop the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center from celebrating its 75th anniversary with an open house Wednesday. The facility opened on March 5, 1950 — it then was the largest construction project done in the Upper Peninsula — as strictly an inpatient hospital with 264 beds, primarily for treating World War II veterans ... [and much has] changed in 75 years. The medical center now serves about 22,000 veterans in the U.P.’s 15 counties, along with nine Wisconsin counties — more than 26,000 square miles, giving it the most rural patient base in the VA system. ...  Its hospice area now has a semi-private patio that allows even a full bed to be taken outside so those in end-of-life care can still enjoy some fresh air, said Mary Oman, [a] tour guide.
Editor's note: Congratulations and thank you to the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center for your history of innovating care for veterans--especially your rural care system and hospice care. 

Norton KDH ending home health, hospice services March 31
MadisonCourier.com, Madison, IN; by Bob Demaree; 3/6/25 
Norton King’s Daughters’ Health has announced it will end its home health and hospice services effective March 31, providing a statement but not offering an explanation for the decision. “Helping local patients and families access important health services remains paramount to the mission and purpose of Norton King’s Daughters’ Health,” the state said. “While we will no longer be directly offering home health and hospice services, we worked with a variety of qualified regional providers to ensure that patients continue to receive appropriate care within their home setting. It has been a privilege for Norton King’s Daughters’ Health to support home health and hospice services for more than three decades. ..."

Mahogany CEO: Hospice on cusp of ‘tremendous revolution’
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 3/7/25 
Mahogany Home Health and Hospice recently launched services in southwestern Ohio. The new hospice startup is the first Black-owned hospice and home health organization statewide with a drive to improve utilization among underserved populations. This is according to Victor Couzens, owner, founder and CEO of Mahogany Home Health and Hospice. The organization recently received a green light from state licensing agencies to begin serving Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio and surrounding communities. ... Couzens recently told Hospice News, ... "As a hospice chaplain, I was often confronted with the pressure of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole when it comes to how underserved communities are actually reached and cared for. It’s about offering insights, or even evidence-based approaches, to meeting the needs of Black and brown people, the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, the needs of immigrants and just any other groups who do not make up the majority of the patient population. ..."

"The hospice heart": Hospice industry battles misconceptions, staffing shortages as expectations grow 
Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, IN; by  Josh Flynn Pharos; 3/9/25 
... There are a lot of misconceptions about hospice care and one of the largest is that entering hospice care is equal to giving up. ...Hospice care is one of the fastest growing industries as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age. The hospice care industry was valued at $34.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow in value to $67.7 billion by 2030. But misconceptions about hospice care and nursing shortages could threaten that future success. ... Maria Rogers is the public relations liaison at Guardian Angel Hospice in Logansport and she has devoted herself to tackling the misconceptions that surround hospice care. ... “You don’t have to be actively passing away to receive our services,” Rogers said. ... Jennifer Edwards, executive director of Heart to Heart in Mishawaka and Logansport, said many families don’t understand the role of medicine in hospice care. While something like chemotherapy would be discontinued, a hospice staff would never discontinue medications or fail to treat new problems that came up. ...

Enloe Health to transition Palliative Care Program to new cancer center 
Action News Now, Chico, CA; by Matt Wreden; 3/7/25 
Enloe Health is transitioning its Palliative Care Program to function under its soon-to-open cancer center. This shift means that Enloe Health will be phasing out its in-home palliative care services, a decision that has raised concerns within the local community. ... Enloe Health explained that this move is in line with the upcoming Symptom Management Clinic set to open as part of the new Cancer Center. 
Editor's note: Does this limit their palliative care services to only those with cancer? What about palliative care needs for persons with advanced heart disease? Strokes? Neurological diseases like ALS or Parkinson's? Advanced dementia?

Understanding a patient’s AI medical journey 
The Hastings Center; by Ian Stevens, Erin William, Jean-Christophe Bélisle-Pion, and Vardit Ravitsky; 3/5/25
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into U.S. health care, patients should know the ways in which AI is being used in their care, concludes a new paper, “Bring a ‘Patient’s Medical AI Journey’ to the Hill.” Transparency is crucial for interactions between health care providers and individual patients, as well as for systemic level uses of AI, including:

• AI devices used for patient triage
• AI-assisted ambient notetaking in which AI apps record conversations between clinicians and patients and generate a draft of clinical notes
• AI-based evaluation of insurance claims

The authors emphasize that transparency, education, and notification are important for building trust in the use of AI in health care. ...

Report finds those with Parkinson’s have unmet hospice needs
McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Kristen Fischer; 3/6/25 
Hospice use varies depending on whether a person has Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and those with Parkinson’s may have more unmet needs, a new study finds. Researchers evaluated data on 11,327,324 Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in hospice between 2010 and 2020 as part of their study, which was published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. ... Hospice enrollees who had Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies were less likely to be disenrolled from hospice due to extended prognosis compared to those with Alzheimer’s disease. People who had Parkinson’s disease but not dementia with Lewy bodies were more apt to have longer stays over 180 days and turn hospice away compared to those with Alzheimer’s disease. (Short stays were defined as those less than seven days.)

Lending a helping harp: Music therapist Sarah Ohr uses the power of music in hospice care 
VolumeOne - Theme Issue "Death & Taxes"; by Barbara Arnold; 3/6/25
... Dubbed the "hospice harpist," Sarah is a harpist and more. Music has been part of her life since a child growing up in Green Bay, where her parents adopted Sarah and her adopted brother Steve separately from South Korea.  ... “Harp and piano are my musical loves,” Sarah noted in an interview. ... Two events, which both occurred in early April 2018, served as life-changing catalysts for Sarah: her brother, Steve, was murdered in Chicago, and Sarah received a cancer diagnosis that would require major surgery. ... [Click on the title's link to read Sarah's career journey as a performer and into music therapy.] ... [Now, Sarah serves St. Croix Hospice in Eau Claire, WI as a board certified music therapist.] According to Sarah, there is a perception that a patient can request her to entertain them. In reality, in order for Sarah to offer support to a patient, medical necessity must be present. “First, I need to be called in as part of the care team, ... Next, I meet with the patient or the patient’s family to conduct an assessment. In super simple terms: is there social isolation, depression, anxiety, pain management, or a neurological reason, by which music can fulfill a need?"
Editor's note: Find professional music therapists at the Certification Board for Music Therapists.

At the end of life, doctors’ actions and patients’ wishes may be misaligned, according to a Rutgers Health study 
Rutgers; by Greg Bruno; 2/28/25 
For terminally ill cancer patients, the final days of life are immensely personal, having the choice to continue cancer treatments, or to stop treatments and prioritize a more comfortable passing. What a patient wants, however, isn’t always what they receive, according to a Rutgers Health study published in the journal Cancer. “A patient's end of life is often not a reflection of what they want, but rather, who their oncologist happens to be,” said Login S. George, a health services researcher at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, and lead author of the national study. “The data doesn’t indicate patient-centered treatment decisions, but rather, more habitual or default ways of treating patients,” says George, who is also a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. ... [Click on the title's link for more statistics, insights, and recommendations.]

The Medical Minute: Measles cases rising in the US, what you can do 
PennState, Hershey, PA; 3/6/25 
A case of measles in a child was confirmed in Montgomery County on March 2 ─ the first reported case in the state in 2025. Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 164 measles cases in nine states. Texas alone has seen at least 140 cases since late January, including one unvaccinated child who died. Measles is a preventable, highly contagious, airborne virus that can cause serious health complications, including death, especially in children under 5, said Dr. George McSherry, division chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. “Measles is a very serious illness. It’s one of the most infectious of the infectious diseases,” McSherry said. “If you put a person with measles in a room with 100 unimmunized people, 90 will get it.” Click on the title's link for more important information. 

13th Annual Healthcare Fraud & Abuse Review - 2024 
JD Supra; by Bass, Berry & Sims PLC; 3/7/25 
Bass, Berry & Sims is pleased to announce the release of the 13th annual Healthcare Fraud & Abuse Review examining important healthcare fraud developments in 2024. Compiled by the firm's Healthcare Fraud & Abuse Task Force, the Review provides a comprehensive analysis of enforcement developments affecting the healthcare industry, significant court decisions involving the False Claims Act, and an overview of settlements involving healthcare fraud and abuse issues. We began the Review over a decade ago with the intention of providing comprehensive coverage of the most significant civil and criminal enforcement issues facing healthcare providers each year. Over that time, the challenges facing the healthcare industry have been significant. ...

In loving memory of the hour we lost ... I'll drink 2 cups of coffee at the same time. ~ Unknown
Happy (?) Daylight Saving Time