Literature Review

Palliative care for Alzheimer’s: what families should understand WNY News Now; by News Staff; 8/19/26 Alzheimer’s disease gradually affects memory, judgment, communication, mobility, and personal care. As abilities change, families face decisions about symptom relief, treatment limits, safety, and emotional well-being. Palliative care addresses those needs while respecting the person’s values and previously expressed wishes. Assistance can begin at any stage of disease, especially when discomfort, behavioral changes, or caregiver strain become difficult to manage without clinical guidance. What details should families check for? ...

Getting accurate AI insights securely with a certified HIPAA data access layer CDATA; by Mohammed Mohsin Turki; 8/18/26 If your organization creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information (PHI), it inherits HIPAA’s compliance obligations. That’s true the moment PHI flows to an AI system or agent instead of the staff who used to handle it, whether that AI is a pilot, a proof of concept, or a model that’s “just reading” records. Most healthcare AI projects stall at the same point. The data still lives in systems that were never built with AI access in mind. A HIPAA-compliant AI data access layer fixes that before the model ever sees ePHI. This blog covers how to choose a HIPAA-compliant AI data access layer that keeps insights accurate, plus the new risks AI adds that older security programs miss. 

Honoring my daughter's final wishes Substack; by Larry Lehmer; 8/7/26 I own one pink shirt. I wear it once a year, on Feb. 28, my daughter’s birthday. It’s mostly her idea. “Please wear more pink!” she wrote for her husband, Paul, to read at her celebration of life. “To the men — you can pull it off.” It’s been three years since Paul had to deliver Meghan’s final words, at the Des Moines Botanical Garden, the same place where they began their married life 13 years earlier. “I once read ‘Love doesn’t die, people do’,” Meghan wrote. “So when love is all that’s left of me, give me away.” Meghan died on Aug. 8, 2023. It still hurts, of course, but we continue to celebrate her life, her devotion to family and try to honor her dying wish “that we all help each other a little more.” Here’s what I wrote about her in August 2023: ...

Compassus CMO: deliver on the hospice promise Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 8/18/26 A patient’s journey towards hospice often begins with a goals-of-care conversation, but those discussions must be timely and effective to truly guide the services a person receives at the end of life. Hospice News spoke with Dr. Kurt Merkelz, M.D., FAAHPM, chief medical officer for Compassus, about the value of these conversations, when they should happen and how clinicians should conduct them. Compassus, one of the nation’s largest hospice providers, is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Towerbrook Capital Partners and the health system Ascension Health.

Nearly one in five Medicare hospice patients now leaves the program alive rather than through death Medical Daily; by Dorothy Brooks; 8/17/26 Almost one in five people who leave Medicare hospice care each year leaves alive rather than through death, and the share has climbed every year since 2021. Federal data released this spring put the live discharge rate at 19.1 percent in fiscal year 2025, up from 16.9 percent four years earlier. For families, this is the rule almost nobody explains at enrollment. Hospice is not a permanent placement. It is a benefit tied to a prognosis, and when that prognosis changes, the benefit can end while the patient is still living, still ill, and still needing care. Understanding it before it happens is the difference between a planned transition and a phone call that lands like an eviction.

What end-of-life experts know about living well: love your wrinkles, celebrate birthdays and don’t obsess over work The Guardian; by Sarah Phillips; 8/13/26 We will all face death one day, but our attitude towards this is individual. How can our understanding of mortality shape our approach to life? Here, palliative care doctors and death doulas share what they know about the end – and how it informs the way they live. Prioritize people, not things Dr. Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor who works at an NHS hospital in Oxfordshire [England] and is the author of several books, including The Story of a Heart. “I have learned what matters to my patients as they approach the end of their life,” says Clarke. “All the irrelevant stuff is stripped away. No one cares about how much power they had, how big their house is, how fancy their car is, how much status they had at work. What they care about is the people they love.” In short: “The way to live a life that is rich and deeply fulfilling is to build human connections. That matters more than anything else.”

Chapters Health System announces joint venture with Preferred Care The Best Times, Temple Terrace, FL; Press Release; 8/19/26 Chapters Health System announced today the launch of a new joint venture with Preferred Care, a home health agency in Florida, to expand hospice care in Southwest Florida. The partnership creates a new offering through Preferred Care Hospice, which was granted approval through the certificate of need program to offer vital hospice services in Collier County. "The opportunity to work with Preferred Care to help expand hospice services in Florida is the chance to align with an organization that has the same legacy of quality and exceptional service that is deeply rooted in Chapters Health System," said Andrew Molosky, President and CEO, Chapters Health System. 

Dozens of senior living and care-related firms on Inc. list of fastest-growing private companiesMcKnights Senior Living; by Kathleen Stee;e Gaivin; 8/18/26 Dozens of senior living and care-related companies are featured on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. Companies on the list are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from from 2022 to 2025. Median growth for the 5,000 named companies was 130%  last year. ... The highest-ranked home health or home care company was Home Care Placement, listed at No. 73. Other home care companies in the top 100 were CareChoice (No. 89), Complete Care Management Services (No. 95) and Healthview Home Care Services (No. 97). Other home health or home care providers among the top 1,000 companies on the list: ...

Metal forget-me-nots display remembers hospice patients BBC News, West Midlands, United Kingdom; by Susie Rack; 8/17/26 Nine hundred handcrafted forget-me-nots have been planted in Worcestershire to remember hospice patients and raise essential funds. The display, planted by St Richard's Hospice in the gardens of St Andrew's Spire, Worcester, was created by artist Ed Alvis, from Metal Art UK, whose father was cared for by the charity at home. Sue Fletcher, from Droitwich, had dedicated one of the Celebration Garden flowers to her son Paul, who spent his last weeks in the hospice before he died, aged 34. ... The metal blooms can be purchased by supporters to be brought home at the end of the installation on 31 August. Fletcher said the campaign helped her "cherish memories of a wonderful son" as well as showing appreciation for the compassion of staff.Editor's Note: Go to the photo. See how one simple, accessible idea creates a meaningful, collective, visible way to remember loved ones, raise funds, and give donors a lasting, tangible connection to the hospice. 

Healing thyself: managing moral injury in healthcare Psychology Today; by Wendy L. Patrick, JD, MDiv, PhD; 8/16/26 Key Points

Victoria Hospice Services, Inc. files Chapter 11 bankruptcy BankruptcyObserver.com, Central District of California; Judge Barry Russell; 8/17/26 Victoria Hospice Services, Inc. is a Whittier, California-based hospice care provider. The company operates a licensed hospice facility, maintains Medicare-certified provider status, and delivers end-of-life and palliative care services to patients throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Regulatory records indicate the organization remained  compliant with the fiscal year 2026 Medicare annual payment update. Victoria Hospice Services, Inc. sought relief under Chapter 11 Small Business of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (Bankr. C.D. Cal. Case No. 26-16812) on July 8, 2026.

When a hospice patient comes to the hospitalICD10monitor; by Tiffany Ferguson, LMSW, CMAC, ACM; 8/17/26 A recent question was posed related to “What happens when a hospice enrolled patient returns to the hospital for emergency or hospital care?” Aside from the initial questions such as “did we even know this patient was on hospice when they roll through the emergency room, or why did they come back to the hospital? The next question may evolve to the following: is the treatment still involving care congruent with the patient’s hospice care plan or has the patient/representative elected to revoke their hospice services? Understanding these distinctions is increasingly important for case management, utilization review, registration, revenue cycle, and especially hospital clinical teams.

Anonymous donor helps Grace House buy Highland Square’s Leonora Hall Signal Akron; Akron, OH; by Shams Mustafa; 8/17/26 A new chapter is beginning for Highland Square’s Leonora Hall after a nonprofit organization, Grace House Akron, purchased the property with the unexpected help of an anonymous donor. ... The acquisition means the property has a new owner following the closure of the Francesca Residence and the displacement of its mostly elderly residents. In a statement, Grace House representative Jen Boroff said that the nonprofit, which provides end-of-life care and housing for people who are indigent, unsheltered or abandoned, sees potential for the site to strengthen its mission and serve the broader community but that the organization has not yet decided how it will use the property.