Literature Review

Design and death: palliative care needs more creativity AAP - Australian Associated Press; by Cassandra Morgan; 5/10/24 At the Caritas Christi palliative care unit, "homeliness" is sprawling crayon lines and scribbled messages of "get well soon", drawn by children in its arts room. It's the sense of quiet, the soft carpet underfoot, and the ability for patients to simply open a window, or walk outside their rooms and touch a tree or feel the soil. Architectural expert Rebecca McLaughlan says homeliness is more about what a space allows people to do than how it looks. ... "In subtle ways, these facilities do affect the quality of time and the quantity of time that people spend with their loved ones." ... The researcher is among experts advocating for greater design innovation in the palliative care sector - a concept often dismissed as incongruous with the reality of evolving health and safety regulations.

New DOJ task force to tackle competition-related concerns in healthcare McKnights Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 5/13/24 The Justice Department said its Antitrust Division’s new Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion will consider “widespread competition concerns shared by patients, healthcare professionals, businesses and entrepreneurs, including issues regarding payer-provider consolidation, serial acquisitions, labor and quality of care, medical billing, healthcare IT services, access to and misuse of healthcare data and more.” The group’s mandate is to facilitate policy advocacy, investigations and, where warranted, civil and criminal enforcement in healthcare markets.

Investing in employee engagement can add a competitive advantageHomeCare; by Jeffrey Knapp; 5/9/24You cannot pay people enough to care. But it is possible to attract and retain great talent and bring out the best in them by fully engaging employees in a shared purpose, giving them a sense that their work is worthwhile and that they are making a difference in the world. That is the culture effect on health care staffing. ... For leaders who want either to start building or to invest more in a culture infrastructure, do not forget these essential steps: 

Hospice pivotal to Enhabit’s growth strategy as a standalone company Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 5/9/24Hospice will remain a core piece of Enhabit Inc.’s (NYSE: EHAB) strategic growth plans following its recent announcements to remain a standalone business. The company was mum about its strategic decision not to sell in Thursday’s earnings call, but executives elaborated on its home health and hospice focal points. 

Sharp Hospicecare breaks ground on Moore Mountainview Hospice in Poway East County Magazine (CA); 5/9/24 Sharp HospiceCare broke ground on the Moore MountainView Hospice Home in Poway Tuesday, marking the introduction of its fourth hospice residence within San Diego County. Slated to open in early 2025, this homelike facility is designed to provide comfort and specialized care to patients and their families. ... The Moore MountainView Hospice Home is named in recognition of a significant donation from Lori Moore, registered nurse, and her family, founders of the Cushman Foundation. Five generations of the Cushman family have been instrumental in volunteer leadership and philanthropy since the founding of Sharp HealthCare. This enduring legacy continues to impact numerous lives and now extends to Sharp HospiceCare. 

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and activist Denella Clark join forces to help women giving care to terminally ill loved ones MSN / The Boston Globe; by Adrian Walker; 5/11/24  Ayanna Pressley and Denella James Clark are sisters in a sorority no one wants to join. The congresswoman and the educator-activist are both women who have lost their mothers. Or, more precisely, women who have shared the experience of being principal caregivers to mothers who are terminally ill. ... As they supported each other in the process of grieving, Pressley and Clark thought of the many people — especially the many women — who act as caregivers to their loved ones in the final stages of their lives. So this Mother’s Day Weekend they are launching the Pressley-James Lovin’ Gestures Fund, which will provide financial help to people providing care to terminally ill close relatives. ...

Event raises $47,000 for Tillery Compassionate Care

[Preface to Mother's Day 2025 ...] My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enoyed it. - Mark Twain

At age 99, Jimmy Carter is still exercising his right to vote Story by CNN and Atlanta News First; 5/10/24 Former President Jimmy Carter, age 99, is still exercising his right to vote. Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, said the nation’s 39th president cast a mail-in ballot this week for the May 21 Georgia primary, emphasizing his grandfather is not going to miss an election. The former president entered hospice care more than a year ago in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Since then he celebrated his 99th birthday last October and attended the annual Peanut Festival, which celebrates the region’s cash crop. He also mourned the loss of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who died in November at the age of 96. To date, that has been Jimmy Carter’s last public appearance. 

Top ten tips palliative care clinicians should know about the psychiatric manifestations of nonpsychiatric serious illness and treatments Journal of Palliative Medicine; by Gregg A Robbins-Welty, Paul A Riordan, Daniel Shalev, Danielle Chammas, Paul Noufi, Keri O Brenner, Joshua Briscoe, William E Rosa, Jason A Webb; 5/10/24... Among patients receiving palliative care (PC), psychiatric comorbidities are common and impact patient quality of life. ... This article, created collaboratively with a team of psychiatric-palliative care experts, is the second in a two-part series examining the bidirectional relationship between medical and psychiatric illness in PC. This article explores 10 prevalent psychiatric manifestations associated with severe illness and its treatment. [Additional access requires journal subscription or additional payment]

60 racial disparities in hospitalization outcomes among women With metastatic breast cancer in the United States by palliative care utilizationCancer Network; by Debu Tripathy, MD; 5/10/24 Background: While studies have reported that members of racial and minority populations hospitalized with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) have lower palliative care use than non-Hispanic White women, disparities in hospital-associated outcomes among inpatients have not been explored in this population. We examined the racial disparities in hospitalization outcomes among adult women with a diagnosis of MBC, stratified by receipt of palliative care. Conclusions: Despite the improvement in palliative care use over the years, members of racial minority populations continue to have poorer outcomes. However, patients who are Black with MBC who received palliative care had similar in-hospital mortality and were less likely to be discharged to a facility when compared with their White counterparts.

Planning ahead: How Medicare services at home differ from at-home Medicaid The Mercury; by Janet Colliton; 5/10/24 When asked how they would like to receive long-term care services many consumers, probably most, indicate they would like to receive them at home. Expectations for extensive help at home with government support often exceed what is available and this, considering shortages in available health care workers and limited funding is likely to continue. However, knowing the differences between what is offered under Medicare versus Medicaid is extremely helpful. ... [Click on the title's link for practical, user-friendly descriptions of Medicare versus Medicaid at home, for short term rehab, hospice, and more.] 

Volunteering in hospice helps Macalester students contemplate death's mysteries up close MSN - Minneapolis Star Tribune; by Katy Read; 5/10/24 "You think it will never happen to you, that it cannot happen to you, that you are the only person in the world to whom none of these things will ever happen," author Paul Auster wrote about humans' difficulty confronting our own mortality. ... Auster himself died last month at age 77. ... How can humans fully grasp the inevitability of our own death? It's a tough question to answer, maybe close to impossible. Three Macalester College students who just finished a course called the Anthropology of Death and Dying don't have the answer. Their professor, who has spent much of his career studying death as an anthropologist and a former hospice nurse, doesn't have an answer. A hospice nurse doesn't have the answer. And a hospice patient with lung cancer doesn't have the answer, even knowing he soon will confront its reality firsthand.