Literature Review

Local hospice offers support for grieving families on Thanksgiving ABC News 7, Amarillo, TX; by Aby Molina; 11/27/25 As families gather for Thanksgiving, the holiday can be particularly painful for those who have lost a loved one. BSA Hospice of the Southwest is offering a place for empathy and a Thanksgiving gathering to support those in mourning. ... BSA Hospice has hosted this event for several years, providing extra support during this time of year. Lindsey Wyatt, bereavement coordinator at BSA Hospice, expressed excitement about hosting the event. "We're just really excited to host, to provide an opportunity and a warm, safe place for people to fellowship and come together who have experienced that loss. ... "

Memorial bricks at William Childs Hospice House pave way for comfort, community and healing Space Coast Daily, Palm Bay, FL; by Space Coast Daily; 11/29/25 Under a beautiful November sky, more than 200 family members and friends gathered on a recent Saturday morning in front of the Butterfly Garden, nestled on the grounds of the William Childs Hospice House. Attendees joined the Health First Foundation’s annual Brick Paver Dedication Ceremony, a heartfelt tradition held each November during National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. ... One such brick was in honor of Arthur “Lou” Larmay, 94, who passed in July while in Hospice care. During his final weeks, Lou was commended by Hospice with a ceremony honoring his military service – and his days as a jazz musician. Gathering in the garden after his passing was just what his mourning loved ones needed.

UConn Health’s palliative care growth continues: Expanding staff and services in both hospital and outpatient settings UConn; by Chris DeFrancesco; 12/1/25 Health’s expanded palliative care services continue to grow, spanning hospital patients to ambulatory patients, with or without cancer. Palliative care referrals in the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center are up 31% from last year, and 600% since inception in 2017. Referrals for inpatient palliative care consultations, which started two years ago, are up 35% from last year. A year ago, Dr. Mary Buss and Dr. Germaine Soliman established an outpatient palliative care clinic for patients dealing with conditions other than cancer. Since opening, it has seen more than 130 patients over nearly 450 visits.

'Rehabbed to death’: Bringing more palliative, hospice care to SNFs Hospice News; by Kristin Easterling; 11/26/25 Patients in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) can become trapped in a “rehabbed to death” cycle that could be prevented with better access to palliative care and hospice. The Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) used by SNFs could be harnessed to enable more palliative care and earlier admission to hospice, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.Editor's Note: Click below for the study and related articles we've posted.

National Alliance for Care at Home: CMS modifies Final Payment Rule based on stakeholder feedback, but 1.3% cut still undermines access National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 11/28/25 The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) today acknowledged that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made significant adjustments in the Home Health Perspective Payment System (HH PPS) Final Rule for CY 2026 in response to community concerns regarding patient access and data integrity. However, the Alliance remains concerned that any payment cut for home health providers will continue to compromise access for the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who rely on these services to age and recover from illness or injury safely at home. 

Sunday newsletters focus on headlines and top read stories of the last week (in order) - enjoy!   Also, remember our Job Board to find staff for the new year!

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm. ~Aldous Huxley

Why reflexivity matters in the literature of suffering, death, and dying in eating disordersJournal of Eating Disorders; by Scout Silverstein; 10/25Current debates on medical aid in dying and treatment futility in longstanding eating disorders emphasize diagnostic frameworks, ethical principles, and legal statutes. What remains underexamined is how an author's own experiences with suffering, death, and dying shape their perspective and conclusions. I argue that every manuscript on end-of-life care, decision-making capacity, or futility in eating disorders should include a reflexivity statement detailing the author's relationship to mortality. By mandating reflexivity disclosures alongside ethics and funding statements, journals can enhance transparency and allow readers to contextualize empirical claims and ethical positions. I propose a template for a reflexivity paragraph in which authors succinctly state their clinical or research focus, experiences with suffering, and forces that shape their views on suffering, futility, and dying.

Utilization of the No One Dies Alone Program to support dying patientsJournal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Austin Chen, Ketki Sathe, Yixuan C Zhang, Lyndia C Brumback, Addy L Elketami, Jamie T Nomitch, Timothy J Shipe, Cynthia M Thelen, Katherine G Hicks, Ann L Jennerich; 11/25We conducted a retrospective cohort study of hospitalized patients enrolled in the NODA [No One Dies Alone] program at Harborview Medical Center (HMC), a level I trauma center in Seattle, WA. The No One Dies Alone ... program has utilized trained volunteers to provide support to dying patients for over 20 years.The NODA program was utilized for patients with and without family support. Some patients were unable to benefit from the program due to timing of referral relative to death, highlighting the importance of early consultation to maximize program benefits.

GUIDE and beyond: Strategies for comprehensive dementia care integrationJournal of the American Geriatrics Society; by Kristin Lees Haggerty, David B Reuben, Rebecca Stoeckle, David Bass, Malaz Boustani, Carolyn Clevenger, Ian Kremer, David R Lee, Madelyn Johnson, Morgan J Minyo, Katherine L Possin, Quincy M Samus, Lynn Spragens, Lee A Jennings, Gary Epstein-Lubow; 10/25The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model represents a landmark opportunity to improve outcomes for persons with dementia and their caregivers and scale comprehensive dementia care through a structured service delivery and alternative payment approach.  Drawing from the experiences of six previously tested programs ... we describe a four-step approach to enable successful adoption and implementation: identifying key leaders and partners, preparing a tailored value proposition, initiating program start-up, and ensuring sustainable implementation. We highlight practical tools and resources to address operational challenges, including electronic health record integration, reimbursement strategies, and staff training. By focusing on evidence-based models, health systems and other providers can accelerate implementation, reduce costly emergency and institutional care, and deliver high-quality, person-centered support. This approach can help to empower GUIDE participants and others to build effective, durable, scalable comprehensive dementia care systems, ultimately advancing the goal of establishing such care as a permanent Medicare benefit.

Hospice, palliative care, and care experiences among Medicare beneficiaries with cancerJournal of Geriatric Oncology; by Lisa M Lines, Miku Fujita, Kim N Danforth, Daniel H Barch, Michael T Halpern, Michelle A Mollica, David T Eton, Ashley Wilder Smith; 11/25Among 37,025 Medicare beneficiaries with cancer, 11.1 % received hospice (with or without PC) and 7.4 % received PC only. Nearly 30 % of the sample died within five years of diagnosis; fewer than one-third of decedents received hospice. Factors associated with receiving hospice included increasing age, non-Hispanic ethnicity, American Indian/Alaska Native and multiracial identities, living in higher-income neighborhoods, survey-completion proxy assistance, fair/poor general health, advanced stage at diagnosis, and more illness burden. Independent predictors of PC encounters included age 75-79, female identification, no dual enrollment, no proxy assistance, and more illness burden. Differences in care experience associated with hospice or PC use were shown for two care experience measures: doctor communication scores and doctor rating scores were higher among beneficiaries who received neither hospice nor PC relative to beneficiaries who received hospice.