Literature Review

Most annoying office behaviors HR Daily Advisor; by Lin Grensing-Pophal; 9/25/24 ... Identifying Behaviors That Annoy: A great first step in combating annoyed employees is to understand what behaviors and actions set those employees off in the first place. A recent survey by Kickresume reveals the most annoying colleague behaviors. The findings showed that 85% of people have dealt with an annoying coworker, with 58% saying these behaviors significantly affect their productivity. Here is the list of the top 15 [with % of employees who find these behaviors annoying]: Credit stealer, 33%. Micromanager, 32%. Chronic complainer, 30%. Personal space intruder, 30%. Lunch thief, 27%. Non-stop chatter, 27%. Loud talker, 26%. Know-it-all, 24%. Procrastinator, 21%. Underperformer, 21%. Email spammer, 20%. Sick but shows up to work, 17%. Ignore-my-headphones talker, 17%. Corporate over-optimist, 16%. Tech illiterate, 15%. Late arriver, 15%.

The competitive physician recruitment market: 5 trends Becker's Hospital Review; by Mariah Taylor; 9/24/24 Both physician recruiting and compensation have become more competitive as market disruptors have entered the field, according to AMN Healthcare's "Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives," published Aug. 5 The report is based on a representative sample of 2,138 search engagements AMN Healthcare conducted from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. The data includes starting salary and other incentives offered to physicians and advanced practice professionals nationwide. ... Here are five trends in physician recruitment:

Grief memoir: Diapers and hospice We Are The Mighty; by Jessica Hall; 9/25/24 This is Chapter 8 in [Jessica Hall's] Grief Memoir. ... Following our trip to Disneyland, I was in the homestretch for my pregnancy. I was worried about what would happen when Dad went into the hospital again. What if it happened when I was in active labor? What if I was in a sleep-deprived haze with a newborn? How do I care for Dad when I’m far away and can’t travel? ... In the days before my planned induction, Dad was taken off intubation and was doing well enough. ... [Later in the story ...] I had given birth just two weeks before but I started to move quickly to go home. I started doing laundry so the baby and I could fly home to say goodbye to Dad. ...

Spending on home healthcare outpaces others for 4th consecutive month McKnights Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 9/26/24 Spending on home healthcare continued to outpace the rest of the sector in August, according to Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economic Indicators brief, released Wednesday. “This is the fourth successive month in which we have observed such rapid growth. Year-over-year home healthcare spending growth for the four-month period from April through July was 19.7%,” George Miller, PhD, Altarum fellow and research team leader, told the McKnight’s Business Daily. Overall, healthcare costs were 2.7% higher last month than they were in August 2023 and 0.2% percent lower than they were in July, according to Altarum. ... Nursing and residential care employment, however, declined by 2,600 jobs in August. ...

Hospices delve into PACE, dementia care amid calls for change Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 9/25/24 ... Some hospices have dug deeper into the PACE program landscape as an avenue to reach patients further upstream and improve utilization and access. These programs can help hospices provide better coordinated care and help patients and their families navigate a fragmented health care system and complex web of community resources, according to Liz Fowler, president and CEO of Bluegrass Care Navigators. The Lexington, Kentucky-based hospice provider launched a PACE program in 2022. These programs are an opportunity for hospices to evolve end-of-life care models that better address social determinants of health, particularly among some of the most underserved patient populations within their service regions, Fowler stated. “PACE programs are more upstream and will hopefully allow us to care for more individuals earlier on and make connections with more diverse communities earlier as well when they see us as a trusted health care provider,” Fowler said. “The big thing with PACE programs is that they are for individuals with very high needs of complex care, and we readily address all their health care needs but also things like food, isolation and loneliness. ...”

NY home care agency pays $400K in racial prejudice lawsuit A home care agency in Brooklyn, NY, was ordered to pay $400,000 to settle a race and national origin discrimination lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ACARE HHC Inc., doing business as Four Seasons Licensed Home Health Care Agency, routinely assigned home health aides based on clients’ racial preferences, according to a consent order filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. These workers, which included Black and Hispanic aides, would either be transferred to new client assignments based on clients’ wishes or lose their employment entirely, EEOC found. These practices were a violation of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from making job assignments based on workers’ race or national origin. Four Seasons will pay $400,000 in monetary relief for the home health aides affected, according to the consent order. It will also update its internal policies and training processes related to Civil Rights Act requirements, cease making home health aide assignments based on clients’ race or nationality preferences, and provide semi-annual reports to the EEOC regarding any reports or complaints surrounding race discrimination.

Executive Personnel Changes - 9/27/24 

Clearing a path for diverse leadership Becker's Hospital Review; by Mariah Taylor; 9/20/24 Creating a diverse nurse workforce and leadership team takes intentionality. "Diversity doesn't happen by itself. It takes effort, thought and planning," Jesus Cepero, PhD, RN, chief nursing officer, senior vice president patient care services at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Medicine Children's Health, told Becker's. Dr. Cepero first joined Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford four years ago and said part of what made him comfortable joining was seeing the diverse team of executives already at the hospital. "Since then, our diversity at the executive level has grown," he said. "This shift has transformed our culture, promoting a sense of safety and belonging, which is key to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce." Now, he oversees 3,500 employees and one of his priorities is to further diversity work at the system. Here are his three guidelines for building a more diverse workforce and leadership team:

The growing, troublesome issues around non-solicitation agreements in home care Home Health Care News; by Audrie Martin; 9/23/24 In August, Comfort Keepers was fined $500,000 and forced to remove language from its contracts restricting caregivers from accepting positions with home care clients up to one year after terminating employment. That contract language, dubbed a non-solicitation agreement, is a widely used clause in home care contracts to protect providers’ businesses. On its end, the Irvine, California-based Comfort Keepers is a large franchise that offers non-medical in-home support, including meal preparation, companionship and personal assistance. The company required each client to execute a care agreement containing this language before receiving services. California Attorney General Rob Bonta concluded that this agreement violated California law by restraining worker mobility, as caregivers could not be hired by any Comfort Keepers client, not just the client to whom they were assigned to provide services. ... 

2 years after its rebrand, CenterWell Home Health is set on tackling big goals Home Health Care News; by Andrew Donlan; 9/24/24 Kirk Allen, the president of home solutions at Humana Inc., is living a home health veteran’s dream. Right now, he is heads down on helping create a value-based home health model within CenterWell, Humana’s provider services arm. Home health leaders have always touted the extraordinary health and monetary value that can be derived from their services. Not many have had the opportunity to prove that out, however. Allen does. Humana owns CenterWell Home Health, which is one of the largest providers in the country. CenterWell also includes CenterWell Pharmacy and CenterWell Primary Care. Eventually, CenterWell Home Health wants to have 80,000 home health patients under its value-based model. ... After Humana fully acquired Kindred at Home, it divested the home care and hospice assets. With the large and remaining home health footprint, Humana created CenterWell Home Health.

HopeHealth CMO: Hospice rules for ‘unrelated care’ getting stricter Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/25/24 Dr. Ed Martin began working in hospice in 1987 after hearing families talk about their experiences with those services. Today, he is chief medical officer of Rhode Island-based HopeHealth. The more than 50-year-old nonprofit organization also serves parts of Massachusetts. Martin recently spoke about the complicated issue of care that is deemed “unrelated” to a patient’s terminal diagnosis at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Annual Leadership Conference in Denver. Hospice News sat down with Martin at the conference to discuss how he and his organization are addressing the matter of unrelated care, as well as the efficacy of requirements for an addendum to the election statement. [Click on the title's link to continue reading this interview.]

77% of health system IT employees eyeing new jobs Becker's Health IT; Naomi Diaz; 9/25/24 Health system IT employees are keeping their options open, with 77% actively seeking new jobs or planning to do so within the next year, according to Bloomforce's "2024 EHR Salary Insights Report." The report, based on an online survey conducted between November and December 2023, gathered responses from 284 healthcare professionals across various roles, including application analysts, team leads, project managers and people managers. It explored areas such as salary, job satisfaction, work-life balance, talent retention and attitudes toward remote work. Here are some key findings from the report: [Click on the title's link to read more.]