Literature Review

How UCSF Health is rebuilding an 'instrumental' management layer Becker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 12/17/24Middle managers have long played a crucial role in industries across the U.S. However, a November article from global management consulting firm Korn Ferry describes "a disappearing layer of middle management," particularly among professional-service firms that are "delayering" to improve flexibility and responsiveness. ...  [Data] shows that in 2023, middle managers accounted for 31.5% of all layoffs, with an average of 22% between 2018 and 2022. While Mitul Modi, Korn Ferry senior client partner in the firm's global healthcare services practice, said layoffs of managers have occurred at various health systems in 2024, he told Becker's he is not seeing this occur with patient-facing roles. Instead, he has observed an increased emphasis on developing middle managers. ... One example of this is San Francisco-based UCSF Health. ... UCSF Health's efforts center around investing in a management core training program.[Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

How the downfall of the ‘Chevron Doctrine’ could affect hospices in the courts Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 12/16/24 Recent court rulings have the potential to make significant differences in the landscape of hospice regulatory oversight in coming years, particularly when it comes to audits and the forthcoming Special Focus Program (SFP). In June the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling that in 1984 established the “Chevron Doctrine,” which instructed lower courts to defer to executive branch agencies to resolve ambiguities in laws passed by Congress. The decision marked the end of the practice known as “Chevron deference,” which required that courts must defer to regulatory agencies’ interpretations of “ambiguous” statutes within federal legislation as long as the enforcement activity is deemed “reasonable.” Hospices could potentially see a vastly different outlook in regulatory enforcement activity during a time of tremendous changes already taking place in the industry, [Bryan Nowicki, partner at the law firm Husch Blackwell] said.

Which skills will survive the AI onslaught? National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Arlington, VA; by Vivek Sharma and David C. Edelman; 12/17/24 ... Boards and CEOs are inundated with reports projecting doomsday scenarios of job displacement due to AI. For example, according to the World Economic Forum's The Future of Jobs Report 2020, automation and AI are expected to displace 85 million jobs globally by 2025, especially in industries such as manufacturing, data entry, and customer service due to the repetitive nature and predictable processes of these fields. AI is already disrupting many roles hitherto considered firmly within the human domain. ... Irreplaceable Human Dimensions ... In analyzing a wide range of articles on the topic, when a job scores high along any of the following three dimensions, it creates significant hurdles for displacement by AI:

Veteran’s body sent across state lines without family’s knowledge USANews.net; by Michael Carter; 12/17/24 In a shocking turn of events, Karen Wandel received a distressing message last year that her father, Libero Marinelli Jr., had passed away over five months earlier in a South Carolina hospital. What came as an even greater shock was the revelation that his body had been sent to be used for medical research without the knowledge of his family. This troubling incident sheds light on the complex and often unregulated practices surrounding the use of unclaimed bodies in the healthcare industry. ... The treatment of Marinelli, a former Army service member entitled to burial in a veterans’ cemetery, underscores the ethical dilemmas surrounding the supply of unclaimed bodies for medical research. Despite widespread acknowledgment of the unethical nature of this practice, it continues to persist due to the healthcare industry’s demand for human specimens and local officials’ struggles with the rising number of unclaimed bodies without next of kin.Editor's note: This demonstrates yet another example of the shocking story that received extensive national network news (and that we posted 9/17/24), "As families searched, a Texas medical school cut up their loved ones." 

Mom in hospice opens up after video of her dancing with son at wedding goes viral ABC News - GMA; by Yi-Jin Yu; 12/16/24A New York mom is opening up after a video of her dancing with her son at his wedding went viral. In the clip shared on TikTok, which has already picked up over half a million views since it was posted on Nov. 3, Olivia Armao hugs her son Sal Armao as they share a dance on his wedding day. But as the text overlaid on the video explains, what viewers see isn't your typical mother-son wedding dance. The difference is that Olivia Armao is in hospice care. She told "Good Morning America" she was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time in 2021. Olivia Armao said the special memory with her 30-year-old son was "really sweet" and one she can't put into words. "I was just happy that I was there and I was able to wait to dance with him. ..." the 62-year-old mom of four told "GMA."

[Canada] First reading: Hundreds seeking death due to loneliness — inside Canada’s new MAID figures National Post, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; by Tristin Hopper; 12/13/24 [Health Canada has] released the official figures on medical assistance in dying (MAID) deaths in 2023. The Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, published on Wednesday, reveals that one in every 20 Canadian deaths is now due to assisted suicide. There were 15,343 total MAID deaths in 2023, the median age ... was 77.7 years, and 622 people received MAID for a non-terminal illness. ... The growth rate [in Canada] remains higher than anywhere else. ... Half of non-terminally ill people applying for MAID report being lonely. When applying for MAID, patients are asked to detail all the types of suffering they’re experiencing in order to determine if their condition qualifies as something “grievous and irremediable” — and thus eligible for death. Health Canada’s report reveals that 47.1 per cent of non-terminally ill Canadians who applied for MAID reported “isolation or loneliness” as one of the causes of their suffering. This was significantly higher than the number of terminally ill applicants who said the same (21.1 per cent).

'A sacred event': Why interest is growing in natural burials San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, TX; by Richard A. Marini; 12/15/24 Proponents of green burials say they are better for the environment and more personal than conventional funerals. Diane Holick has long known she doesn’t want to be buried in a box after she dies. Nor does she want to be cremated. Instead, she wants what’s known as a natural burial, a type of funeral that eschews many of the familiar trappings of today’s burial practices. ... Proponents say natural burials represent a return to what funerals and burials used to be. Natural burials strip away what they see as unsustainable, harmful and expensive practices of what’s sometimes referred to as “the funeral industrial complex.” [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

Stabilizing local hospice and home health services celebrated as a gift at holiday gathering Juneau Empire, Juneau, AK; by Mark Sabbatini; 12/14/24 Heather Richter says she’s optimistic about the long-term prognosis for hospice and home health services in Juneau, a little more than two years after they were on life support when the agency that had provided them for 20 years suddenly shut down and sent officials into a lengthy struggle to establish a new program. Richter, director of the Home Health and Hospice Program at Bartlett Regional Hospital, said 68 families have been participants since the hospital officially took over the program in July of 2023. Funding for the program, a key concern raised this spring due to a massive budget shortfall at the hospital, now appears more stable due to Juneau Assembly members supporting a five-year operating plan and support from the Juneau Community Foundation. “We’re in the clear,” she said during a “Light Up a Life” Community Celebration hosted by the program at the hospital on Friday evening. ...

Teleios announces Teleios University graduates Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN), Hendersonville, NC; by Tina Gentry; 12/16/24 Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN) announced its 2024 Teleios University (TU) graduates. Nine individuals successfully completed the year-long program, earning their certificates in leadership excellence. TU’s Leadership Excellence program is unlike any other. This one-year course is provided through monthly webinars, experiential monthly activities, quarterly challenges and more. It culminates with a capstone project and earns each participant who completes the assignments a certification in leadership excellence. This year’s graduates include the following leaders in the Hospice and Serious Illness Sector:

Palliative care may improve quality of life for stroke survivors and their family members American Heart Association - Stroke News & Brain Health; by Newsroom; 12/16/24 Palliative care ... can help improve quality of life for stroke survivors as well as their family members, according to “Palliative and End-of-Life Care in Stroke,” a new scientific statement published today in the Association’s peer-reviewed scientific journal Stroke. ... The new statement complements the Association’s 2014 Scientific Statement on Palliative and End-of-Life Care in Stroke, which covered core palliative care competencies and skills for health care professionals who treat stroke patients. The statement includes strategies to improve communication about prognosis and goals-of-care, address psychosocial needs such as coping with loss, navigate complex health care systems and prepare for death with end-of-life care when necessary. It also highlights the substantial inequities that exist in palliative care after stroke across sociodemographic and regional characteristics and the need to reduce those disparities.

MedPAC advises cutting home health payments by 7 percent, freezing hospice payments in ’26 McKnights Home Care; by Liza Berger; 12/16/24 The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) on Friday issued draft recommendations that entail cutting payments to home health agencies by 7% and freezing hospice payments in 2026. The body, which advises Congress on Medicare payment issues, issued the same recommendations last year. Providers, once again, were not pleased. “The recent recommendations by MedPAC regarding Medicare home health and hospice policy are misguided and deeply troubling,” Steve Landers, MD, CEO of the National Alliance for Care at Home, said in a statement to McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “Medicare hospice spending has not kept up with labor inflation in the past five years and the typical length of stay and proportion of beneficiaries accessing hospice has stagnated. With respect to home health, the recommendation for drastic cuts is based on a flawed analysis of agency margins that fails to account for all payers and the true financial health of the home health system.”

Navigating the Generative AI journey: A strategic roadmap for healthcare organizations Perficient; by Felix Bradbury; 12/13/24 The healthcare industry stands at a transformative crossroads with generative AI (GenAI) poised to revolutionize care delivery, operational efficiency, and patient outcomes. Recent MIT Technology Review research indicates that while 88% of organizations are using or experimenting with GenAI, healthcare organizations face unique challenges in implementation. Let’s explore a comprehensive approach to successful GenAI adoption in healthcare. ... The journey to GenAI adoption requires careful consideration of three key dimensions: organizational readiness, use case prioritization, and infrastructure capabilities, [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

Health gap at end of life is now wider in US than any other country Science Alert - Health; by Carly Cassella; 12/16/24 A data-crunching survey covering 183 member nations of the World Health Organization has now confirmed what some scientists feared: while years are being added to most people's lives, healthy life is not being added to most people's year. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that people around the world in 2019 were living 9.6 years of life burdened by disability or disease – an increase of 13 percent from 2000. In that same time frame, global life expectancy has increased 6.5 years, and yet health-adjusted life expectancy has only increased 5.4 years. In the US, the gap between lifespan and 'healthspan' is growing particularly wide. Between 2000 and 2019, life expectancy in the US increased from 79.2 to 80.7 years for women, and from 74.1 to 76.3 years for men. When adjusting for healthy years of added life, however, the span only increased by 0.6 years among men. And among women, while health-adjusted life expectancy fluctuated slightly over time, in 2019 it matched the figure seen in 2000. The expanding gap means if an American woman lived to the expected 80.7 years of age, the last 12.4 years of her life would on average be impacted by disease or disability.