Literature Review

Grieving amid holidays is hard. Hospice can helpTimes Union (Albany, NY)December 16, 2023The holidays can be challenging, more so for those dealing with the loss of a loved one. ... “We have lots of experience dealing with death and grieving,” said Angela Yu, manager of marketing and communications, continuing care at St. Peter’s Health Partners. She said the hospice has also developed Holiday Hope videos on how to cope. They are posted on Facebook. 

Can AI Help You Die? Doctors in New Jersey are experimenting with software to prompt discussions with patients about palliative or hospice care.BloombergDecember 18, 2023Doctors can be slow to talk about the end of the traditional medical road. When they’ve been trying to manage a life-threatening illness or keep a terminal patient alive, bringing up palliative or hospice care can feel like giving up. But these options can radically improve quality of life, or the end of life, when traditional medicine hasn’t helped enough—if patients and their doctors figure it out in time. ... “When someone is actively declining, you can see it, but being able to predict before that happens is hard.” Can artificial intelligence software do a better job than humans of picking that moment? That’s the idea behind Serious Illness Care Connect, a software tool that about 150 doctors are testing in a pilot program in New Jersey’s largest health-care network, Hackensack Meridian Health. ... The Hackensack Meridian team stresses that the tool isn’t making decisions. “Think of this as a ‘check engine’ light,” says Lauren Koniaris, the chief medical informatics officer at Hackensack Meridian.

Halfacre Construction Company Celebrates Groundbreaking for Gulfside HospiceSRQ Magazine (Sarasota, FL)December 18, 2023New Port Richey, FL—Halfacre Construction Company, a Lakewood Ranch-based commercial construction company, recently broke ground on Gulfside Hospice, a non-profit organization offering hospice, skilled home health care and palliative care for serious, chronic and late stage illnesses. Located at 5299 Deer Park Drive in New Port Richey, the $11 million project includes a single-story hospice facility that has 24 private beds, new sitework, parking and landscaping. 

Anderson Cooper’s Newest Assignment—Grief (His Own)New York TimesDecember 17, 2023It took Anderson Cooper more than a year after his mother’s death to begin clearing out her apartment. It was an emotionally draining task, one that he put off—something his mother may have anticipated, because she left him a road map. He began finding notes she had left him, tucked away in drawers and sealed containers. Written in her hand on heavy stationery, they acted as a kind of treasure hunt to their shared grief. Mr. Cooper’s mother, the heiress and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, was one of the most famous women in the world, courted by Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, photographed by Richard Avedon, and a muse to Truman Capote, who is believed to have based the character of Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” partly on her. Just sorting through her personal papers would have been challenging for her son after her death at the age of 95 in 2019. But the apartment was also the final resting place of objects that belonged to Mr. Cooper’s father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, an author and screenwriter who died in 1978 when Anderson was 10, and his older brother, Carter Cooper, who died in 1988, when they were both in their 20s, after jumping from his mother’s balcony.... Mr. Cooper, 56, began keeping voice memos on his phone as he was sorting through his mother’s belongings in 2021. They grew into a podcast on grief, “All There Is With Anderson Cooper,” which began its second season in November. For decades, the longtime anchor of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°” has chronicled other people’s suffering. Now, he has become a correspondent from the land of his own grief.

Senior homes left dangerously understaffed amid assisted-living boomWashington PostDecember 17, 2023Louisville, CO—Lavender Farms, an upscale assisted-living facility in the Boulder suburbs, promised “24/7 on-site care” in its marketing materials. But managers at its operating company, Balfour Senior Living, worried deeply about their ability to care for the elderly residents who roamed the farmhouse-chic corridors at odd hours and sometimes wandered outside unnoticed, documents and interviews show. ... Failures at Balfour facilities are symptoms of deeper problems in the $34 billion market for assisted living and memory care, a growing industry that now provides care and housing for more than a million Americans, according to industry estimates.

Dozens of assisted-living residents died after wandering away unnoticedWashington PostDecember 17, 2023... Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive problems walk away from assisted-living facilities just about every day in America, a pattern of neglect by an industry that charges families an average of $6,000 a month for the explicit promise of safeguarding their loved ones, a Washington Post investigation has found. Since 2018, more than 2,000 people have wandered away from assisted-living and dementia-care units or been left unattended outside, according to The Post’s exhaustive search of inspection results, incident reports and media accounts nationwide. 

Federal agency quashes Georgia’s plan to let pharmacies sell medical marijuanaAssociated Press/Washington PostDecember 17, 2023Atlanta, GA—Federal drug officials are warning Georgia to shelve its plans to be the first state to allow pharmacies to dispense medical marijuana products. News outlets report that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Nov. 27 warned pharmacies that dispensing medical marijuana violates federal law. 

How one woman is honoring her late husband’s memory with a grief program at SargentoSheboygan (WI) PressDecember 17, 2023Plymouth, WI—Shirley Krause and her husband Randy Susen were inseparable for 30 years. ... Susen passed away July 4, 2020, at age 64, nearly a year after going to the ICU for the brain injury. ... Krause, a supply chain technology principal at Sargento, launched a life planning series in July focused on a grief and end-of-life planning for employees, one of several efforts she’s pursuing to honor her husband’s memory, along with hosting a widows’ support group, advocating for nursing home residents’ rights and supporting other families with traumatic brain injury survivors. 

Hospice of WF surpasses $300,000 goal in Tree of Lights campaignKAUZ-TV (Wichita Falls, TX)December 15, 2023Wichita Falls, TX—Since November 21, the Texoma community has worked hard to help the Hospice of Wichita Falls reach their goal, which this year was $300,000. Alisa Echols, Executive Director at the hospice said with the amount of support that is shown throughout the year, she’s never surprised to see the amount they hoped for is met. ... At the last check on Friday, $315,000 was the amount raised.

Other Business Headlines of Interest …

SLU Hospital nurses plan two-day strike in late-DecemberKTVI-TV (St. Louis, MO)December 15, 2023St. Louis, MO—A group of SLU Hospital nurses is planning a two-day strike later this month. Organizers say the strike comes in protest of “union-busting” practices and outsourcing of RN jobs. Nurses gave their employer (SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital) notice Friday that they would plan a 48-hour strike. It’s currently scheduled outside the hospital from 7 a.m. on Dec. 27 to 6:59 a.m. on Dec. 29.