Literature Review

Hospital CEOs: What to expect from CMS next yearBecker's Hospital CFO Report; by Laura Dyrda; 12/13/24Healthcare providers will face more reimbursement challenges next year, S&P Global predicts, especially as demographic shifts increase the number of Medicare beneficiaries in many markets. Factors likely to pressure providers next year include:

Where 74 health system leaders are focused to prepare for 2025 Becker's Hospital Review; Mariah Muhammad; 12/23/24 Becker's asked C-suite executives from hospitals and health systems across the U.S. to share the areas they're focusing on for 2025. The 74 executives featured in this article are all speaking at the Becker's Healthcare 15th Annual Meeting on April 28 - May 1, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. ...  Question: What are the top headwinds you're preparing for in 2025? Editor's note: Click on the title's link for this lengthy list. Key themes include (but are not limited to):

The year in review: Influential people who died in 2024 AP International - Chicago's Very Own WGN 9; by Bernard McGhee; 12/30/24 ... [Jimmy] Carter was the nation’s longest-lived president when he died Sunday at age 100. But he was just one of many noteworthy people who died in 2024. ... The year also brought the deaths of several rights activists, including the reverends Cecil L. “Chip” Murray and James Lawson Jr.; Dexter Scott King; Hydeia Broadbent; and David Mixner. Business leaders who died this year include: Indian industrialist Ratan Tata, The Home Depot co-founder Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, financier Jacob Rothschild and Daiso retail chain founder Hirotake Yano. ... [Noteworthy] sports figures who died include: basketball players Jerry West and Dikembe Mutombo; baseball players Willie Mays and Fernando Valenzuela; and gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi. The music industry lost a titan in producer Quincy Jones, who died in November. ... Here is a roll call of some noteworthy figures who died in 2024 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available): [Click on the title's link to read more.]

25 Hospital closures in 2024 Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Madeline Ashley; updated 12/27/24, 3:06 pm CT Many hospitals and emergency departments have been forced to close in 2024 due to circumstances like high costs and shifts in care needs. Becker's has reported on 25 hospital and emergency department closures in 2024. [Click on the title's link to view the list.]

SPECIAL EDITION: New Year's Eve 2024For December 31st  and January 1st we look back summary posts about 2024 and projected themes for 2025. May we wisely learn from the past, be present in the present, and forge out the future. We thank you for the hospice and palliative care you provide to our world. Hospice & Palliative Care Today - Cordt Kassner, Publisher, Joy Berger, Editor in Chief, and Cathy Wagner, Assistant Editor.

The Hastings Center’s 2024 highlights The Hastings Center; 12/26/24  It has been a successful 2024 thanks to our community of readers and supporters who trust The Hastings Center to illuminate and thoughtfully explore ethical issues in health, science, and technology. Here are some of the past year’s highlights, with a personal message from President Vardit Ravitsky.

2024’s most read palliative care news stories Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 12/20/24 “Access” was the watchword in the palliative care community during 2024, as providers sought more ways to reach the right patients at the right time. However, the momentum toward greater access is slow, even though researchers, payers, providers and regulators increasingly recognized the value of palliative when it comes to improved quality and health care expenditures. The following are the most-read Palliative Care News articles of 2024. This year’s top coverage spanned a wide range of payment, legislative and research trends impacting the future delivery of palliative care.

Tributes to President Jimmy Carter

The top long-term care stories of 2024 McKnights Long-Term Care News; by James M. Berklan; 12/20/24 Workforce issues dominated the long-term care provider landscape in 2024 — but in far more ways than just coping with the finalization of the nation’s first-ever nursing home staffing mandate. As new legal and political winds may eventually push that controversial regulation off providers’ desks anyway, it was clearly apparent this year that McKnight’s Long-Term Care News readers’ interests span a wide array of personnel and workplace issues. Below are the top stories, topics and issues that our readers showed they were most intrigued about when it came to doing their jobs better, and about the sector in which they spend so much daily energy.

How private investment is becoming a driving force behind PACE Modern Helathcare; by Diane Eastabrook; 12/23/24 2025 could be the year a 50-year-old program that keeps older adults out of nursing facilities goes mainstream as for-profit companies innovate and launch more programs. Habitat Health, Seen Health, One Senior Care and InnovAge are planning to expand Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly from California to Ohio. These investor-backed organizations are scaling and innovating PACE at a time when more states are offering the Medicare-Medicaid program for frail older adults, and as legislation before Congress could make its services more widely available. Still, these for-profit programs face administrative hurdles and high start-up costs that have hamstrung PACE for decades.

How healthcare AI is meeting the hype at UW HealthBecker's Health IT; by Giles Bruce; 12/6/24Ambient clinical documentation will be commonplace in healthcare three years from now, according to Chero Goswami, chief information and digital officer at Madison, Wis.-based UW Health... What is the IT project you're most excited about at your health system? I would say the stuff we're doing with ambient listening, which most others in the industry are doing as well, which is allowing providers and other members of the care team to spend more time in direct patient care, and not typing up notes, with AI capturing everything in the background and then creating a summary note, or a clinical note. It returns the clinicians to clinical practice, rather than making them glorified typists. And it also leads to a better patient experience, because the patient is very much aware that the clinician is looking at them eye to eye and having a conversation, versus looking at a keyboard. And it reduces cognitive burden. The physicians aren't completing the note at 8 o'clock at night, but doing it in real time at the clinic.

Beyond the bedside: How an online Master's in Healthcare Administration impacts patient care University of the Cumberlands, Florence, KY; 12/26/24 Healthcare is about more than just bedside care. Behind every smooth-running hospital or clinic is a team of administrators ensuring that patients receive high-quality treatment efficiently. Healthcare administrators bridge the gap between clinical operations and organizational management, directly influencing the patient experience. By implementing policies, optimizing resources, and supporting healthcare teams, these professionals make it possible for caregivers to focus on what they do best: treating patients. With this in mind, earning an online master’s degree in healthcare administration can equip professionals with the leadership skills and strategic insight needed to improve patient outcomes on a broader scale. ...

Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. ~ Hal Borland