Literature Review

All Saints Hospice hosts first-ever school supply drive for Lake Charles students KPLC-7, Lake Charles, LA; by Brendan Brown; 7/18/26 A Lake Charles hospice center is going beyond patient care and into the classroom. All Saints Hospice is collecting school supplies for local students, hoping to ease the financial burden on families before the new school year begins. Getting kids ready for the first day of school isn’t cheap. Bookbags, pencils, paper, binders the list adds up quickly, and for many Lake Charles families, it can be an expensive task to take on. According to the National Education Association, school supply costs increased by 7.6 percent for the 2025-2026 school year compared to the year before, a trend that could continue heading into the next school year.

[United Kingdom] Hospice marks 35th anniversary with exhibition BBC News, Channel Islands and Guernsey, United Kingdom; 7/18/26 A charity is marking 35 years of providing specialist hospice care for people with life-limiting illnesses, through an art installation. Les Bourgs Hospice was founded in 1991 and the photographic exhibition in the Brian White Gallery at Guernsey Museum, Candie, celebrates the people and community behind it. The States of Guernsey said the gallery consisted of a series of about 70 portraits which captured "the people whose dedication, compassion and commitment" helped shape what the hospice is about. 

4 hospices see growth  Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 7/17/26 Some hospices have opened new locations in the Midwest and East, while other providers have expanded their geographic service reach. Additionally, one Texas-based hospice has unveiled a new children’s grief program.

H.R.9703 - Improving access to transfusion care for hospice patients act of 2026 U.S. Congress.gov, House Ways and Means Committee; sponsored by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI-6); bill introduced 7/15/26 H.R. 9703: To require the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test allowing blood transfusions to be paid separately from the Medicare hospice all-inclusive per diem payment.

CTOs say human alignment is key to cyber resilience SC World US Media | CyberRisk Alliance; by LevelBlue; 7/17/26 ... CTOs identify human misalignment as a key shortcoming in the cyber resilience strategy.CTOs believe that greater collaboration could improve the effectiveness of their cyber resilience strategies. Only slightly over one quarter (27%) say their enterprise displays very close alignment, compared with about a third who say they are very competent in areas relating to cybersecurity and cyber resilience. LevelBlue’s data indicates that 75% of CTOs (compared with 61% of the overall sample) say lack of clarity around responsibility for cyber resilience often impairs strategy. A lack of clear ownership blurs accountability, delays incident response, and disconnects cyber decisions from business risk appetite. Despite strong technical defenses, this leaves organizations more exposed.

Some kids come here for vacation. Others come to die. Either way, parents are grateful USA TODAY, San Leandro, CA; by Madeline Mitchell; 7/20/26 ... There are mainly two kinds of families who come to George Mark's Children's House. Some come for respite, entrusting their medically fragile but otherwise stable children to skilled nurses while parents leave for a much-needed break from around-the-clock caregiving. Others come for pediatric end-of-life care, a rare and essential service that changed the trajectory of CEO Shekinah Eliassen's life. These parents stay with their children at George Mark and can bring the patient's siblings, too, to soak in their last days together. "This type of service, I believe, should be part of the system of pediatrics," Eliassen says, adding that families never see a bill for their visits. Her son, Lars, died at George Mark when he was 21 days old, after he was born having seizures. 

Mount Sinai South Nassau partners with MJHS to launch inpatient hospice program LI Herald Oceanside, Island Park, NY; by Abigail Grieco; 7/17/26 Mount Sinai South Nassau has expanded its continuum of care services by launching an inpatient hospice program through a new clinical partnership with MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care, providing specialized end-of-life care for patients whose needs cannot be met at home. The hospital announced that the new service will offer around-the-clock hospice care for patients facing life-limiting illnesses, while also providing support for their families during one of life’s most difficult transitions. ... The program combines the expertise of Mount Sinai South Nassau's clinical staff with MJHS Hospice's specialized team of hospice professionals.

Empath Health Mobile Simulation RV gives summer camp students hands-on look at healthcare careers Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC); Press Release; 7/16/26 Today, Empath Health Clinical Specialist, MJ Schwartz, Workforce Innovation & Academic Partnerships brought their Mobile Simulation Unit to Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch Health Care Discovery Summer Camp on Thursday, July 16, giving middle and high school students a hands-on introduction to health  care careers through interactive clinical simulations and team-based problem solving. The 31-foot Mobile Simulation RV hosted 28 campers, ages 11 to 18, who rotated through the unit in small groups. Students explored health care training equipment, learned basic patient care concepts and participated in a medical “escape room”-style activity designed to build critical thinking and collaboration skills while introducing real-world healthcare scenarios.

Personal experience fuels Jeannie Meyer's commitment to helping the homeless die with dignity UCLA Health; by Sandy Cohen; 7/15/26  The UCLA Health palliative care nurse is a national advocate for recording end-of-life wishes for unhoused individuals. Jeannie Meyer, MSN, didn’t realize she was homeless as a child. She thought everyone moved from place to place, hotel to hotel, and never answered the phone or the door in case a bill collector was on the other side. “I knew what ‘eviction notice’ meant when I was 5 years old,” she says. Those childhood experiences made her empathetic, but it was the pain of learning that her alcoholic father died on Skid Row that inspired Meyer, a palliative care nurse at UCLA Health, to advocate for advance care planning for homeless people.

An updated analysis of serious health-related suffering from 2021 to 2023 Journal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Afsan Bhadelia, Xiaoxiao Jiang Kwete, Tania Pastrana, Héctor Arreola-Ornelas, Jinfeng Ding, Oscar Méndez-Carniado, Lukas Radbruch, William E Rosa, Hongliang Tao, Valentina Vargas Enciso, Felicia Marie Knaul; 7/15/26 Results: Between 2021 and 2023, global serious health-related suffering (SHS) grew by 3.9% - outpacing population growth (1.8%) - driven by sharp increases in upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) (5.5%) and high-income countries (HICs) (5.2%) and notable condition-specific increases in SHS associated with lung disease (18.2%), inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (11.4%), and dementia (7.9%). Moreover, increases in SHS due to cancer were particularly stark in LICs (17.8%), while injuries markedly rose in HICs (15.9%).

Restaurant owner shelves Easter plans to fulfill dying man's last wish to feed his hospice nurses Daily Good; by Good News Network; 4/7/26 Frank Ozimek spent his final days in hospice care, but what occupied his mind wasn't his own suffering -- it was how to thank the nurses who had tended to him with such devotion. When his brother Ken struggled to find a restaurant open on Easter to fulfill Frank's wish to feed the hospice staff, Tommy Milani, owner of a local pizza shop, didn't hesitate: "Absolutely, whatever you need, Ken." Milani set aside his holiday plans and delivered pizzas to the entire nursing staff, completing a circle of care that began with strangers and ended with gratitude. In his last act, Frank found a way to say what perhaps mattered most -- that he had seen the kindness given to him, and wanted to give it back.  

California physician arrested in $3.2m hospice fraud scheme Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 7/17/26 A California-based physician was recently arrested after pleading guilty to charges of healthcare fraud. Dr. Sanjoy Banerjee, was a medical director for Fountain Hospice, based in Los Angeles. Two other medical directors at the hospice, Luis Artavia and Mark Samonte, also face charges for their alleged involvement in a fraud scheme that bilked more than $3.2 million in Medicare and Medi-Cal funds. The case centers around violations of false or fraudulent claims and conspiracy to commit a crime, with an aggravated white-collar enhancement.