Literature Review

Palliative care nurses see us in our final hours — these are the life lessons they've learnt ABC News; by Iskhandar Razak; 6/29/24 Anne Myers was once confused and shaken by death. After more than a decade as a nurse, including in hospital ICUs, her mother died. "I'd seen a lot of deaths in my nursing life, but it was the closest human to me that had died," she said. "It kind of sent me down a 'oh my god, I don't know what's happening to me', this grief I'm experiencing." Soon afterwards, she became a palliative care nurse. "I ended up just going down the path of 'what is death, what is death and dying all about?'" she recalled. More than 15 years later, here's what she and other palliative care nurses have discovered on how to die well and live well.

Monroe Clinic & Hospital Foundation celebrates record-breaking mini golf event The Monroe Times, Monroe, WI; 6/30/24 The Monroe Clinic & Hospital Foundation’s “Little Golf” and Grill event, held on June 11, was an afternoon of mini golf that led into a night full of generous giving for a great cause. ... The event raised a record-breaking more than $79,600 from countless heartfelt donations provided by community members and businesses. This brought the total raised over the event’s 32 years to over $1,005,000. “Three decades of commitment from our healthcare team and the community to support and grow local hospice care is an incredible achievement,” shared Jane Sybers, Executive Director of Monroe Clinic & Hospital Foundation, a member of SSM Health. “I have the privilege to share gratitude stories with donors whose loved ones walked through hospice with us. To surpass one-million-dollars is such an incredible milestone and shows how much our community values this meaningful service.” The evening program walked attendees through the hospice patient journey. During the program, different staff members shared their role in patient care and the impact their patients have on them. 

Empowering ‘deeply undervalued’ caregivers would improve ‘lifeline for older adults’ McKnights Senior Living; by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 6/28/24 Direct care workers and family caregivers remain “deeply undervalued” and often overlooked despite calls for investment in the care economy, according to the authors of a new report. “These caregivers provide a lifeline for older adults, people with disabilities, and people living with chronic conditions,” PHI and the National Alliance for Caregiving said in an issue brief released Wednesday. “Empowering them in their roles will help to ensure high quality, responsive care to meet the needs and preferences of millions of Americans now and in the future.” The organizations called on providers, Congress, the Department of Labor, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, states, managed care plans and advocates to invest in the “essential partnership” between direct care workers and family caregivers. The new brief includes insights from a variety of stakeholders ...  The result is a list of recommendations that prioritize improvements to direct care jobs.Editor's Note: Our sponsor, Composing Life Out of Loss, equips hospice and palliative care organizations with caregiver education and support video libraries to strengthen relationships between the direct care professional and the family caregiver, with timely information for the entire family. Contents are written to CMS CoPs, CAHPS, and contemporary grief research; English and Spanish.

Medical Aid in Dying and the “slippery slope” argument Psychiatric Times; by Doublas W. Heinrichs, MD; 7/1/24 Commentary: A mainstay for opponents of medical aid in dying (MAID) for the terminally ill has long been the slippery slope argument. Rather than argue directly against MAID for the terminally ill, which puts them at odds with the majority of US citizens and physicians, they argue that MAID should be rejected because it will inevitably lead to unacceptable expansions to other populations. They say it will expand from the terminally medically ill, to non-terminal medically ill patients with intractable pain and suffering, to advanced directives for dementia, to psychiatric patients with intractable mental pain and suffering, or to anyone who simply finds life unbearable. It is best, they argue, to stop this by opposing the first step. Editor's Note: We do not provide this article to promote this author's conclusions, but rather to raise awareness of key issues that are being examined by individuals, by healthcare professionals, and legislators in many US states and numerous international countries.

Midland Care Connection and VNA KC form innovative partnershipPress release; 7/1/24Topeka, KS - Effective July 1, 2024, the Visiting Nurse Association Kansas City (VNA KC), one of the oldest home health agencies in the nation, will affiliate with Midland Care Connection. This partnership aims to create a more robust regional continuum of care.

A little help from your friends... Jennifer Hale, MSN, RN, CHPN, CPHQA little help from your friends is a memorial fund set up for Jennifer Hale's family. If interested, you can read more about it and donate here. Donations accepted 6/30/24 - 7/15/24. ... We recently announced Jennifer Hale unexpectedly died Friday, 6/21/24. Vice President of Quality and Standards at Compassus, former Vice President Clinical Services at Optum Palliative Care and Hospice, and former Executive Director of the Georgia Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, Jennifer was widely known, respected, and loved in the hospice community. We share our condolences with her family, friends, and colleagues. Her obituary is posted here.

NAHC re-files lawsuit against HHS, CMS over home health cuts Home Health Care News; by Joyce Famakinwa; 6/28/24 The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) hasn’t given up on efforts to push back on Medicare home health payment calculations. NAHC has re-filled its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The lawsuit focuses on the home health PDGM budget neutrality adjustment, which imposed both permanent and temporary calculations with a methodology that NAHC believes is noncompliant with the law. The original lawsuit was filed last summer, and in April the case was dismissed by a federal court in Washington D.C. The case was dismissed on the basis that NAHC did not fully exhaust administrative appeal remedies. ... There are a number of factors that made NAHC decide to re-file the lawsuit, according to [NAHC President, William A.] Dombi. “No. 1, it will be faster,” he said. “No. 2, we are highly likely to get the same judge, as there’s a related litigation standard in an assignment of cases,” he said. One of the biggest factors that heavily contributed to NAHC’s decision was the Supreme Court ruling, which upended the Chevron Doctrine.

Families, volunteers share stories of finding peace through hospice Salina Post; by Cristina Janney, Hays Post; 6/29/24 This is a two-part series on hospice care in northwest Kansas. Dalene Juenemann and her father, Dean, had to make the difficult decision to enter hospice care after he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. “He was just such a social guy and someone was in a couple times a week,” she said. “They were checking in on him and it was that security blanket he had.” ... He didn’t want to go through aggressive chemo and he didn’t qualify for a bladder removal because of his age. “He chose quality of life,” she said. "It was that final decision that we are done with everyone wanting a piece of me. I'm just going to enjoy life," she said. Dalene's father, Dean Shearer, was a patient of NWKareS, Hospice of Northwest Kansas, which serves 16 counties from Interstate 70 to the Nebraska border and Trego County to the Colorado border. ... She said the extra care hospice offered allowed her to just be a daughter to her father as he was dying. [Click on the title's link to continue reading stories from families and volunteers at NWKAreS.]

NPHI Statement: Hospital notifications to patients of hospice referral optionsNPHI press release; 6/17/24Many hospitals are providing discharged patients with a list of all Medicare-certified hospices in the geographic area in which the patient resides, in the mistaken belief that this is a requirement under the Medicare Conditions of Participation (COPs). Hospitals may be understandably confused by existing hospital CoPs that require such lists to be provided for HH, SNF, IRF and LTCHs. Section 482.43(c)(2) clearly states these provider types and excludes hospices. There is no such requirement in the hospice regulations or law that requires a hospital to provide patients with a list of all hospices in a particular geographic area. [See statement for additional information.]

In a 1st at ChristianaCare, physicians vote to unionize Becker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 7/1/24 Physicians at ChristianaCare locations in Delaware and Maryland voted to join the Doctors Council, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. ... The decision marks the first attending physician union in Delaware, the first union at ChristianaCare, and the largest union of private sector physicians in the U.S., according to the Doctors Council. Union representatives said the physicians' decision is a response to ongoing concerns about corporatization and their professional autonomy.

How 'Human-Kind' AI can reshape your business Forbes; by Mark Cameron; 7/1/24 As AI models mature, their impact on the economy is becoming increasingly profound. They offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Here's how. ... AI enables traditional businesses to accomplish more with fewer resources. ... As AI begins to take over mundane tasks, the role of the human workforce is evolving. Employees are no longer cogs in the machine—they're becoming value creators. The focus is evolving toward roles that require critical thinking, creativity and emotional intelligence—areas where humans excel, but AI still has limitations. This shift necessitates upskilling and reskilling initiatives to prepare the workforce for new, high-value roles in an AI-driven economy.

"Message into the Community" with Tom Howell TCN Anatomy of Leadership; podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux; 6/26/24 In this episode of the Anatomy of Leadership, Chris Comeaux interviews Tom Howell, Principal with Hundred Trees LLC, about the importance of effective messaging in leadership and marketing. They discuss the role of listening and research in crafting impactful messages that resonate with the community. Tom shares his experience using focus groups and qualitative research to understand people's perceptions and values. Tom emphasizes the need for organizations to deliver on their promises and provide quality products or services. The conversation highlights the importance of communication as a two-way process and the value of engaging and involving people in discussions. 

Community Hospice & Palliative Care, a subsidiary of Alivia Care, Inc., becomes last remaining not-for-profit hospice provider [in North Florida] PR.com - Alivia Care, Inc. Press Releases, Gainesville, FL; 6/29/24 With recent changes in end-of-life care, North Florida residents may notice a shift as Haven, a long-standing provider in the region, transitions due to acquisition by a for-profit health care company, BrightSpring Health Services. As this transition takes place, Community Hospice & Palliative Care, a subsidiary of Alivia Care, Inc., wishes to express its continued dedication to providing compassionate, community-based care to individuals and families in the community. "We understand that transitions in healthcare can be challenging for our community," said Phillip Ward, President, and CEO of Community Hospice & Palliative Care. "However, we want to reassure everyone that our dedication to serving our neighbors with compassion, dignity, and unwavering commitment remains as strong as ever."