Literature Review

Rural hospitals eye service expansions to weather federal cuts Modern Healthcare; by Alex Kacik; 7/14/25 Rural hospitals are hopeful they can add rather than reduce services to help soften the blow from looming Medicaid and Medicare cuts. ...  If rural providers cannot recruit physicians, lean more heavily on philanthropic donors or find other ways to reduce their reliance on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement to get ahead of cuts in the law, hospitals will be forced to pare back services or close their doors, industry observers said. ... In response, rural providers have accelerated ongoing operational adjustments, including renegotiating vendor contracts, beefing up their coding and billing processes, freezing new hires and standardizing daily tasks to reduce administrative waste. But those tweaks alone cannot sustain rural hospitals, so some providers are aiming to grow surgeries, infusions and other services to boost their bottom lines, executives said.

CHP Home Care & Hospice celebrating 50 years of service The Van Wert Independent, Van Wert, OH; by Greg Yinger; 7/20/25 CHP Home Care & Hospice is celebrating a half century of providing home-based health care services in northwest and west central Ohio. The non-profit, 501c3 organization was incorporated in December of 1974 and served its first patient on March 1, 1975. Dr. E. E. White, a local physician, initiated the establishment of a home health care service because Van Wert County was one of five Ohio counties at the time that lacked these services. Dr. White hired Donna Grimm, a registered nurse, and with the help of a $3,000 grant from the United Way of Van Wert County, Van Wert Area Visiting Nurses Association – later changed to Community Health Professionals (CHP) – was established.  

Caring for a difficult elderly parent during a transitionPsychology Today - Caregiving; "Personal Perspective" by Franne Sippel, EdD, LP; 7/21/25 I am the only child of an only child who lives in an assisted living facility thousands of miles away. I unofficially diagnosed Mom with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder after struggling for years with a relationship fraught with guilt and frustration. ... It’s difficult enough to care for a frail parent when their health is failing. However, the added OCD personality, with its micromanaging, rules, and demands, tests patience beyond compare.  ... A good friend suggested I call hospice to evaluate her. Jim, a hospice RN in his 70s, arrived and instantly assessed the situation with laser-like precision. ... I spend many months going back and forth between South Dakota and Arizona to see my mom. Hospice continues to visit her three to four times a week at the assisted living facility, and a dear family friend also visits her several times a week. ... Editor's Note: Keep reading this article to its end. The insightful, practical, sensitive care from these hospice clinicians generated life-long transformations for this burdened caregiver-daughter. 

Roche Bros. co-owner donates $1M to hospice care nonprofit Boston Business Journal; by Kate Keeley; 7/21/25 Rick Roche, co-owner of Roche Bros. Supermarkets, and his wife contributed a $1 million gift to NVNA and Hospice's $20 million fundraising campaign. ... The Roche family has worked with the nonprofit for more than a decade, and the organization said the family's involvement has been essential to its long-term stability. NVNA established the Pat Roche Hospice Home, the South Shore's first nonprofit hospice home, in 2013. The 12-bed care center, located in Hingham, is named after Roche's father who co-founded the family's grocery chain.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

My mother refused treatment for her breast cancer. Her doctors should have respected her choice. Instead they dismissed her--and criticized me.STAT; by Joy Lisi Rankin; 7/21/25My mother died in January 2007. She told the family that she had breast cancer in 2002. We still don’t know when she knew, or when she had been diagnosed. One thing we did know: She chose not to treat the cancer. In her encounters with health care professionals — doctors, nurses, assistants — during the last years of her life, her choice was met with disbelief and disdain. “Why aren’t you treating your cancer?” “Do you understand what’s going to happen?” “You know you’re going to die, right?” A final thought went unsaid but was clear: “If you’re not going to do what I recommend, I can’t do anything for you.” [Limited access to STAT with three stories per month.]

[England] £75 Million boost for hospices to transform end-of-life care Gov*UK, Department of Health and Social Care; Press Release, Stephen Kinnock, MP; 7/20/25 Families will see further improvements in end-of-life care as the government releases £75 million for hospices to deliver major upgrades and enhancements to facilities including separate family rooms, solar panels to reduce energy costs and communal lounges. More than 170 hospices across England will receive a share of the funding – the largest cash injection ever – to ensure patients receive the highest quality end-of-life care in comfortable, dignified surroundings. It follows a £25 million boost in February, delivering the government’s £100 million investment confirmed in December. This is already supporting urgent building repairs and creating warmer, homely spaces. This cash marks a further step in the delivery of the government’s Plan for Change, improving care in the community where people need it most. 

Rochester hospice provider pulls out of Owatonna project, sunsets community grief services PostBulletin,com, Rochester, NY; by Dené K. Dryden; 7/17/25 Citing multiple challenges, Rochester's Seasons Hospice will no longer be expanding into Owatonna and will pare back its community services through the Center for Grief Education and Support. In a Friday, July 18, press release to the Post Bulletin, Dawn Beck, president of the nonprofit hospice provider's board of directors, said "we have had to make the extremely difficult decision to restructure our grief services and to cease efforts to reopen the Homestead Hospice House in Owatonna." The Homestead Hospice House, previously operated by Allina Health, has been closed since summer 2023, the Owatonna Peoples Press reported. Since last year, Seasons Hospice had been fundraising to reopen the facility, but Beck said this week that staffing challenges, financial difficulties, issues with licensing and certification, for-profit competition and uncertainty around federal changes contributed to Seasons Hospice withdrawing from the project. ... In Rochester, starting Aug. 1, the Center for Grief Education and Support will no longer provide services to the community at large ...

Tele-palliative care offers access to needed support Rand; by Shira H. Fischer, Jordan M. Harrison, Julia Bandini; 7/18/25 On first consideration, the idea of providing palliative care via video chat seems counterintuitive or even insensitive. Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life for individuals with serious illnesses. At such a delicate time, would a computer screen between patients and their doctors really suffice? Yet tele-palliative care—palliative care via telehealth— is emerging as a promising option. It offers access to care for those who might otherwise go without and has surprising advantages over traditional, in-person care.

SCC launches Practical Nursing Program for high schoolers The Mount Airy News, Dobson, NC; Press Release; 7/19/25 Surry Community College is implementing a Practical Nursing program designed specifically for high school students. This initiative allows students to earn healthcare certifications, gain hands-on experience, and enter the workforce sooner —all while completing their high school education. This program offers a wide range of benefits for students and the community. High school students can simultaneously earn college credit and professional credentials through dual enrollment, setting them on a direct path toward a career in nursing. 

Perform detail-oriented internal audits to avoid common denials DecisionHealth - Home Health Line; by MaryKent Wolff; 7/18/25 The most common reason for hospice denials in the first quarter of 2025 was that the claim was not hospice appropriate, according to Palmetto GBA, a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) servicing 16 states. Palmetto released its list of the top 10 hospice medical review denial reasons from January to March 2025 on May 16. [Subscription required.]

Death anxiety: Dani Chammas & Keri BrennerGeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Dani Chammas, Keri Brenner; 7/17/25What is death anxiety? We spend the first 15 minutes of the podcast addressing this question. And maybe this was unfair to our guests, the fabulous dynamic duo of palliative psychiatrists Dani Chammas and Keri Brenner (listen to their prior podcasts on therapeutic presence and the angry patient). After all, we invited them on to our podcast to discuss death anxiety, then Eric and I immediately questioned if death anxiety was the best term for what we want to discuss!