Literature Review

Personal health companies up for sale as costs rise Modern Healthcare, by Diane Eastabrook; 3/26/25 Labor shortages, tighter access to capital and low reimbursements from some payers could force more healthcare providers to shed non-core operations, such as personal care and post-acute care, according to analysts. ... More than three-quarters of 51 active buyers of home health, hospice and personal care companies said they planned to increase acquisitions in 2024, ...

15 top health system workplaces, per USA Today Becker's Hospital Review, by Giles Bruce; 3/21/24 Fifteen health systems were named top workplaces in the U.S. by USA Today and human resources technology company Energage. Released March 20, the Top Workplaces USA 2024 list was determined using Energage's confidential employee engagement surveys and participating company benchmarks that take into account years of workplace culture research. [Click on the title's link to view these 15 health systems]Editor's Note: Each of these health systems has a hospice and/or palliative program. We honor your commitments and innovations to ensure "top workplace cultures" for your employees. 

Improving the Quality Of Quality Metrics Health Affairs; by Aditya Narayan, Bob Kocher, and Nirav R. Shah; 3/19/24... The landscape of health care quality measures is dynamic, reflecting efforts to enhance patient care, safety, and outcomes. These measures are developed and reimbursed by a variety of stakeholders, including government agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), health care organizations, and independent bodies such as the National Quality Forum and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The development process involves rigorous research, stakeholder engagement, and consensus-building to ensure measures are evidence-based, applicable across different health care settings, and meaningful to patient care.Editor's Note: Read and share this informative, big-picture article about the evolution of healthcare's quality metrics, its tools, and best practices. 

Incurable but not hopeless: How hope shapes patients’ awareness of their advanced cancer prognosis The Conversation, by Jean Mathews and Michael Brundage; 3/24/24Hope is defined as the expectation of achieving a future good. Patients with cancer, whether it is curable or not, prioritize cure as their highest hope. ... Previous research indicates that less than half of patients with incurable cancer are aware of their prognosis. This is often attributed to a failure of communication. ... In the context of advanced cancer, the relationship between hope and hopelessness is balanced by acceptance, which can re-direct hope to new goals beyond cure, such as hope for connection with others and enjoyment of daily pleasures. 

‘I’m kinder and more compassionate’: actor Greg Wise on men and grief The Guardian, by Tim Jonze; 3/24/24 How the tragic death of his beloved sister, Clare, gave Greg Wise a new outlook on navigating the end of life.  ... Wise is best known as an actor. He met [his wife, Emma] Thompson on the set of 1995’s Sense and Sensibility and has notched up more than 30 years in film and TV. But these days he has carved out a niche for himself as someone who wants to change the way we think, and talk, about the end of our lives. “Not having a proper relationship with one’s grief is one of the great ills of the world,” is how he puts it. "[Without] witnessing and accepting our own pain, we can’t have empathy – proper empathy. I don’t think we can see someone else’s suffering until we can see our own.”

Thank a social worker this month The Alpena News; 3/22/24 March is National Social Worker Month, and we encourage anyone who knows a social worker to take the opportunity to thank him or her for all they do. ... There are more than 700,000 social workers across the U.S., more than 30,000 of them in Michigan, working in all kinds of fields, from child advocacy and protection to behavioral health to hospitals and hospice. “Our mission is to help the vulnerable,” Karen Wagner, a social worker with Hospice of Michigan’s Alpena team, told News staff writer Mike Gonzalez for a recent story. 

End-of-life care in heart failure MedPageToday; by Crystal Phend, reviewed by Andrew Perry, MD; 3/22/24 Palliative care has a perception problem. It's often associated with end of life or advanced cancer. However, cardiovascular disease actually accounts for a higher proportion of adults in need of palliative care than does cancer (38.5% vs 34%), according to the World Health Organization. Patients with heart failure (HF) have a median survival of about 5 years -- on par with many types of cancer, yet patients with cancer are much more likely to be referred to palliative care. 

Top 10 patient safety threats of 2024: Helping new clinicians, maternal care barriers, AI, and more Chief Healthcare Executive, by Ron Southwick; 3/21/24 When ECRI unveiled its list of the leading threats to patient safety for 2024, some items are likely to be expected, such as physician burnout, delays in care due to drug shortages or falls in the hospital. However, ECRI, a nonprofit group focused on patient safety, placed one item atop all others: the challenges in helping new clinicians move from training to caring for patients. ... ECRI’s top 10 threats to patient safety for 2024: 

Record funding raised for Tidewell Hospice, Empath Health HomeCare News; 3/21/24 Nearly 600 people attended the Tidewell Foundation’s Crystal Anniversary Signature Luncheon on Friday, March 1, at The Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota. The 15th Annual event, the Tidewell Foundation’s largest fundraiser, raised a record $434,558 to benefit Tidewell Hospice and Empath Health services that reach more than 10,000 people each year in Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties in Florida. Health advocate, movie, TV and Broadway actress, five-time Golden Globe nominee, New York Times best-selling author and memory expert Marilu Henner was the keynote speaker. Henner is a spokesperson for Alzheimer's disease awareness. She has been a vocal advocate for hospice care, and in 2019 she became a spokesperson for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. 

Report: Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers total 840K in Florida, bear heavy burden NPR WMFE, by Joe Byrnes; 3/22/24The number of Floridians serving as caregivers for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias is an estimated 840,000, an increase of 13,000 in just one year, according to an annual report from the Alzheimer's Association. Caregiving takes a toll on families hit by the degenerative brain disease, but a new program from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could lessen that burden. ... [This] promising resource in the works is the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, an approach that includes the patient and caregiver. The GUIDE Model -- through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services -- starts in July. 

Massachusetts makes paid family leave more accessible, offering services in Spanish, Portuguese New England Public Media, by Elizabeth Roman; 3/22/24... The state passed a law in 2018 which provides paid family and medical leave (PFML) for serious injury or illness whether personal or a family member, as well as time for parental leave, but found that people whose primary language is not English were unaware of, or hesitant, to apply for the services. ... While the state portal for applying for PFML services now has options in various languages, some people are still overwhelmed by filling paperwork out online. ... There are representatives who speak Spanish and Portuguese and the state also works with an interpretation service for many other languages.

HHS Secretary Becerra: We’re with you on telehealth flexibilities Hospice News, by Jim Parker; 3/21/24 Telehealth flexibilities must become permanent U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra indicated in a congressional hearing [Wed]. At the end of this year, telehealth flexibilities implemented during the pandemic are slated to expire. In a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Becerra said that HHS was willing to make them permanent. However, he said this would require closer collaboration with state governments. “We’re with you. We can’t allow those flexibilities to expire, and we need to work closer with our state partners, because much of the flexibility that comes from telehealth means being able to go over state lines,” Becerra said.