Literature Review

Renovus Capital Partners announces strategic partnership with Superior Health Holdings The Alvin Sun, Wayne, PA; by Renovus Capital Partners, LLC; 1/7/25 Renovus Capital Partners ("Renovus") today announced a strategic partnership with Superior Health Holdings, Inc. ("Superior" or the "Company"), a leading provider of home health and hospice services throughout Louisiana. ... Superior was formed in 2021 as an aggregation of several agencies providing similar services throughout Louisiana and has since grown both organically and through strategic acquisitions, led by Chief Executive Officer, David Martin. ... Superior Health Holdings, Inc., based in Baton Rouge, LA, is a full-service family of agencies offering hospice and home health services.

Peter Yarrow, iconic Peter, Paul and Mary singer and former Connecticut Hospice board member, dies CT Insider; by Andrew DaRosa; 1/7/25 Peter Yarrow, one-third of the iconic folk troubadours Peter, Paul and Mary, has died at the age of 86 ... “Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” Yarrow's daughter, Bethany Yarrow, said in a statement to the Associated Press. ... Yarrow frequently performed in Connecticut and was scheduled to play with Stookey in July at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook. Yarrow also performed at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, where his mother had stayed, according to a 2017 interview with Compassion and Choices. He served on the board for Connecticut Hospice for a number of years. 

End-of-life care can be more aggressive for cancer patients with defibrillators Medical Xpress; by UT Southwestern Medical Center; 1/8/25 Patients with advanced cancer who also had cardiac defibrillators were more likely than those without these implants to receive aggressive end-of-life care, a team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found in a new study. The findings, published in Cancer, could help physicians guide patients in this growing population toward care that better matches their goals. ... The findings showed that about 6% of patients with advanced cancer also had [implantable cardioverter defibrillators] ICDs. However, significantly more of the ICD patients received aggressive care during the last month of their lives compared to those without these devices.

Amedisys halts sale of home health, hospice locations to VitalCaring Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 1/7/25 Amedisys’ (Nasdaq: AMED) has halted the divestiture of some of its home health and hospice locations to Texas-based VitalCaring. Amedisys in June announced an agreement to sell some of its locations to the private equity-backed home health and hospice provider VitalCaring. ... The news to cancel the divestiture comes after a recent court order issued by a federal judge in Delaware requiring that VitalCaring allocate 43% of future profits to Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) and Enhabit Inc. (NYSE: EHAB). [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

Hawaiʻi Palliative and Hospice Care Collaborative forms to strengthen advanced illness care across state MauiNow - Maui News; 1/7/25 Six grassroots nonprofit hospice providers—Hawai‘i Care Choices, Hospice Maui, Kaua‘i Hospice, Navian Hawaii, North Hawai‘i Hospice, and St. Francis Hospice—have united to form the Hawai‘i Palliative and Hospice Care Collaborative, a statewide initiative leveraging decades of expertise to provide compassionate palliative and hospice care across Hawai‘i. “This Collaborative represents a new era for end-of-life care in Hawai‘i,” said Brenda S. Ho, CEO of Hawai‘i Care Choices. “By coming together, we are amplifying our voice, strengthening our resources, and ensuring that every community across our islands has access to care that honors the culture and preferences of each patient and their ‘ohana.”  

California wildfires live updates: Pacific Palisades wildfire grows rapidlyNBC News - Live Coverage; 1/7/2025What we know about the California wildfires:

Palliative care for mental illness: A podcast with Dani Chammas and Brent KiousGeriPal Podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Dani Chammas, Brent Kious; 12/19/24We’ve talked a lot before about integrating psychiatry into palliative care. Still, we haven’t talked about integrating palliative care into psychiatry or in the care of those with severe mental illness. On this week’s podcast, we talk with two experts about palliative psychiatry. We invited Dani Chammas, a palliative care physician and psychiatrist at UCSF (and a frequent guest to the GeriPal podcast), as well as Brent Kious, a psychiatrist at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, focusing on the management of severe persistent mental illnesses.

Top 25 health systems' most-successful digital projects of '24Becker's Health IT; by Giles Bruce; 12/20/24Health systems experienced another year of digital advancement in 2024, with more big EHR moves and a push toward generative AI. Here are the most successful IT projects and top digital trends of the year, as told to Becker's by the head technology leaders at top 25 health systems across the U.S.

5 ‘Hidden Gem’ Palliative Care News Stories in 2024Palliative Care News; by Holly Vossel; 12/27/24Palliative care providers have explored diverse routes to improve quality and access to their services in 2024. Below are five under-the-radar stories that, while important, didn’t make our most read this year. The topics spanned evolving reimbursement trends, innovative care delivery partnerships and research examining the biggest barriers among undeserved populations.

'Never waste a good crisis': The keys behind a Louisiana system's financial comebackBecker's Hospital CFO Report; by Alan Condon; 12/27/24Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, a 10-hospital system headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., achieved a $241 million turnaround in fiscal year 2024 under the leadership of CFO Mike Gleason, who told Becker's the feat was "a total team effort." By reimagining operational strategies, shifting from a holding company to an operating company model, and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration, the 10-hospital system not only stabilized its finances but positioned itself for sustained growth. Mr. Gleason joined the Becker's Healthcare podcast to discuss the strategies that turned a financial crisis into an opportunity for sustainable growth and strengthened the health system's ability to reinvest in its people and future.

Hospice Coalition Questions and Answers: October 30, 2024Palmetto GBA; 12/12/2024Meeting Q&A and these attachments: Attachment A1: Hospice Appeals Report Q2; Attachment A2: Hospice Appeals Report Q3; Attachment B: Hospice CAP Updates.

An AI chatbot outperformed physicians and physicians plus AI in a trial - What does that mean?JAMA; by Yulin Hswen, Rita Rubin; 12/27/24Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine, and Ethan Goh, MBBS, MS, a postdoctoral scholar, both at Stanford University, have collaborated for 2 years on studying the integration of human and artificial intelligence to enhance clinical decision-making. They published a randomized clinical trial in JAMA Network Open on October 28 that found that the use of a large language model (LLM) did not significantly enhance physicians’ diagnostic reasoning beyond that of conventional resources. Surprisingly, though, the LLM alone performed better than the physicians did with either the LLM or the conventional resources... In our pilot study, we thought the doctors who had access to the chatbot were going to do way better than the doctors who only had access to the usual internet - UpToDate, PubMed, Google, whatever. Then when we actually did the randomized study, that didn’t turn out to be the case, which is really weird. The chatbot by itself did surprisingly better than all of the doctors, including the doctors that accessed the chatbot. That flew in the face of the fundamental theorem of informatics: human plus computer will deliver better results than either would alone. That sounds so good, right? I’ve been saying it as the last line in my talks for years. I don’t say it anymore because results like these challenge it.Publisher's note: An interesting interview with the authors of JAMA's Large Language Model Influence on Diagnostic Reasoning article, which we ran 11/16/24.

St. Petersburg doctor coerced minors into producing child sex abuse material, feds sayTampa Bay Times; by Emily Wunderlich; 1/7/25 A St. Petersburg doctor who is the husband of the chief administrative officer of the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County is facing charges that he coerced minors into producing child sexual abuse material and even directed a girl to hang herself, federal prosecutors announced this week. ... Court records show Leedy was indicted on Oct. 24 and arrested Dec. 20. He is being held in federal custody in Atlanta. He is facing three counts of production of child sexual abuse material and two counts of coercing or enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to life in federal prison.