Literature Review

Examining how improper payments cost taxpayers billions and weaken Medicare and Medicaid HHS-OIG; by Christi A. Grimm, Inspector General, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 4/16/24 HHS Inspector General Christi A. Grimm Testifies Before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on April 16, 2024. IG Grimm briefs members on HHS-OIG's work to address improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs. Click here to watch the testimony.

Measuring decision aid effectiveness for end-of-life care: A systematic reviewPEC Innovation; M. Courtney Hughes, Erin Vernon, Chinenye Egwuonwu, Oluwatoyosi Afolabi; 4/24A total of 715 articles were initially identified, with 43 meeting the inclusion criteria. Outcome measures identified included decisional conflict, less aggressive care desired, knowledge improvements, communication improvements, tool satisfaction, patient anxiety and well-being, and less aggressive care action completed. The majority of studies reported positive outcomes especially when the decision aid development included International Patient Decision Aid Standards.Publisher's note: Also by these co-authors, please see The effectiveness of community-based palliative care program components: A systematic review (Age and Ageing, 2023) and Measuring effectiveness in community-based palliative care programs: A systematic review (Social Science & Medicine, 2022).

I wanted to run. I wanted to fly. I was cryin’. I wanted to tell the whole world who he was and what we had done with him, you know, and he was our horse. Other than when my four children and my grandchild was born, I’ve never been happier. You want to see the greatest, and the greatest of all races is the Kentucky Derby. That is the race, the Kentucky Derby, the Run for the Roses. - John Sosby, former manager of Claiborne Farm Editor's Note: Posted from Louisville, KY! (Home of Joy Berger, Editor-in-Chief)  

Association between opioid use disorder and palliative care: a cohort study using linked health administrative data in Ontario, CanadaCMAJ; by Jenny Lau, Mary M. Scott, Karl Everett, Tara Gomes, Peter Tanuseputro, Sheila Jennings, Rebecca Bagnarol, Camilla Zimmermann and Sarina R. Isenbergl; 4/29/24Background: People with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at risk of premature death and can benefit from palliative care. We sought to compare palliative care provision for decedents with and without OUD.Conclusion: We identified important differences in palliative care provided at the end of life between people with and without OUD. People with OUD were less likely to receive palliative care despite accessing palliative care earlier, which may reflect their end-of-life illness trajectories and underlying structural vulnerability that may prompt them to receive palliative care primarily in acute care. Health care providers should receive training in palliative care and addiction medicine to support people with OUD. 

An exploration of managing emotional labour and maintaining professional integrity in children's hospice nursing International Journal of Palliative Nursing; by Mandy J Brimble, Sally Anstey, Jane Davies, Catherine Dunn; 4/17/24Aim: To investigate how children's hospice nurses manage emotional labour and professional integrity in their long-term relationships with parents. Findings: Three overarching, cross-cutting themes were identified—purposeful positioning; balancing personability and professionalism; coping with and counterbalancing emotional labour. All themes were indicative of and/or built upon emotional intelligence constructs, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, appropriate (managed) empathy, social skills and intrinsic motivation. Innate features of children's hospice work were important for perpetuating intrinsic motivation and satisfaction.

Nonphysical Suffering: An under-resourced and key role for hospice and palliative care social workersJournal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care; by Maxxine Rattner & Cheryl-Anne Cait; 11/10/23... Nonphysical suffering is suffering that may be emotional, psychological, social, spiritual and/or existential in nature. The study found an absence of specialist social workers on hospice and palliative care teams or limited time for specialist social workers to address patients’ nonphysical suffering due to high caseloads and complex practical needs. While the study recognizes social workers have expertise in supporting patients’ nonphysical suffering, a competency and skill that has not been sufficiently captured in the existing literature, the systemic barriers they face in providing care may leave patients’ needs unmet. The study also highlights the unique pressure social workers may feel to relieve patients’ nonphysical suffering due to the psychosocial focus of their role.

Exploring unmet concerns in home hospice cancer care: Perspectives of patients, informal caregivers, palliative care providers, and family physicians Cambridge University Press; by Eran Ben-Arye, Noah Samuels, Yael Keshet, Miri Golan, Erez Baruch, and Jama Dagash; 4/8/24 Objectives: The study examines perspectives of patients in home hospice care; their informal caregivers; palliative health-care providers (HCPs); and family physicians, all regarding patients’ unmet needs and quality of life (QoL)-related concerns.Conclusions: While the 4 groups were similar in their scoring of patient QoL-related concerns, there were discrepancies for some concerns (e.g., patient fatigue) and expectations regarding the need to discuss emotional and spiritual concerns, including on death and dying. Educational initiatives with programs providing training to all 4 groups may help bridge this gap, creating a more open and collaborative hospice care environment.

The spectrum of end-of-life experiences: A tool for advancing death educationOmega; by Shared Crossing Research Initiative; 3/24 Abstract: Studies on end-of-life experiences (ELEs) suggest that caregivers and loved ones of dying patients also have ELEs, though these are rarely explored. This article introduces the Spectrum of End-of-Life Experiences (SELE) as a descriptive list of types of ELEs reported by all members of the care unit, including dying patients, their caregivers, and their loved ones. We applied SELE towards identifying ELEs reported by 143 caregivers and loved ones and successfully identified every experience. Interviews revealed that participants viewed their ELEs as profound communicative events, yet a substantial minority also reported struggling to name and process these experiences. We propose that SELE be included in death education to raise awareness about ELEs that can occur within the care unit, and we suggest that SELE has additional applications, including use as a prognostic aid in end-of-life care and as a therapeutic aid for bereavement support.

America’s favorite, weed, comes with big health risks: Pyschosis is an increasing risk of today's strong marijuana.Psychology Today; by Mark S. Gold, MD; 4/30/24Key Points:

New federal rule meant to strengthen nondiscrimination protections, advance civil rights in healthcare McKnights Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 4/30/24 The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday released a final rule aiming to protect individuals from discrimination in healthcare, including members of the LBGTQ+ community. ... The rule “reverses a Trump-era regulation and restores gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination protections under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act,” Bloomberg Law reported. Section 1557 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability by entities that primarily provide healthcare and receive federal funding. It is enforced by the HHS Office for Civil Rights.

CIOs' top 15 priorities over next 3 years Becker's Health IT; by Giles Bruce; 5/1/24 CIOs' top priority over the next one to three years will be driving business innovation, according to a recent CIO survey. That differs from their current No. 1 focus, which is cybersecurity, per an April CIO story. Here are the activities CIOs plan to spend more time on in the next one to three years, according to the 2024 survey of 1,126 IT leaders: ... [click on the title's link for the list]. 

Be like bacon. Bacon makes everything better! - Heard from someone, somewhere on the Food Network

Nurse pleads guilty to 22 counts of patient murder, attempted murder Becker's Hospital Review; by Mariah Taylor; 5/2/24 Heather Pressdee, a Pennsylvania nurse, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted homicide, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported May 1. Ms. Pressdee pleaded guilty on May 2 in an ongoing hearing that is expected to go until May 3. She was given three consecutive life sentences and 380 to 760 years consecutively. Ms. Pressdee, 41, was first charged in May 2023 in connection with the mistreatment of three nursing home patients while working at Quality Life Services in Chicora, Pa., including two counts of homicide and one count of attempted murder. In November, she was charged in connection with the mistreatment of 19 additional patients that were in her care at five different facilities since 2020.