Literature Review

Three Oaks Hospice reportedly begins sales process Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/16/24 Dallas-based Three Oaks Hospice has reportedly begun seeking a buyer. The private equity-backed hospice launched in 2019 with more than $21 million in investment dollars from Granite Growth Health Partners, Health Velocity Capital and Petra Capital Partners. Rumors of the potential sale were first reported by the website Ion Analytics, which indicated that Three Oaks generates between $12 million and $15 million EBITDA.

[Honoring Hispanic Heritage Month] Artists on death, grief, and cancer Burnaway; by Carolina Ana Drake; 9/17/24... Living in Miami and raising my toddler in this city, I’ve discovered artists who similarly lost a parent to cancer. Many, like me, happen to be the children of immigrants. Their works exemplify challenging, at times experimental, art that doesn’t fit the glitzy, market-driven Miami narrative. Through conversations and email exchanges, I learned more about how these artists transformed the darkness and grief of that period into something beautiful that is worth sharing with others. [Click on the title's link to see photos from the following exhibits.]

Private Equity's impact on hospice care: The good, the bad, and the ugly of private equity TCN Talks - Teleios Collaborative Network; by Chris Comeaux; 9/18/24 In this episode, Private Equity's Impact on Hospice Care, The Good, the Bad, and Ugly of Private Equity, Chris interviews Laura Katz Olson, a professor of political science at Lehigh University.  It’s a fascinating discussion based on Laura’s book Ethically Challenged. During their conversation, they delve into the impact of private equity in the healthcare industry.  Private equity firms prioritize making oversized profits and have a short-term focus, often selling companies within six years, relying heavily on debt financing and putting the burden of servicing the debt on the acquired companies.  Leaving a company worse than when the started is the opposite of what leadership is supposed to do for any organization, especially one with such a critical mission. Editor's note: TCN /  Teleios Collaborative Network sponsors our newsletter. 

Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift Shop reaches $1M milestone LoudonNow.com, Leesburg, VA; by Staff Report; 9/17/24 Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift Shop in Purcellville surpassed $1 million in sales this year, a threshold of success the organization attributes to unwavering community support. Money raised at the Main Street store supports its efforts to provide quality and compassionate care for those facing serious illness and end-of-life challenges. “Our thrift shops serve as windows into the living rooms of our community. They reflect the spirit of giving and caring that defines Loudoun County. Reaching the $1 million mark is not just a financial achievement that supports our purpose and mission-driven work; it’s a testament to the collective effort of a community that truly values and supports its neighbors,” President and CEO Jason Parsons stated.

Death is no enemy Psychiatric Times; by Sidney Zisook, MD; 9/17/24... As mental health clinicians, we often confine our conversations about death and dying to recognizing suicide risk and preventing suicide. And for good reason. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, ... Far less attention is paid by mental health clinicians to other aspects of death and dying. But we are human, first and foremost, and coping with a host of issues related to the end of life is inextricably bound to both our professional and personal lives. Like it or not, death is part of life. We, as mental health clinicians, are not always as prepared as we would like to be to help ourselves, our loved ones, our patients, and their loved ones deal with loss, dying, death, and bereavement. For many physicians, 1 or 2 hours in medical school and perhaps another few hours during residency are all the training we receive in these complex and challenging clinical issues. ...  Chochinov provides a clinician’s guide for “being with” dying patients. He offers ways of providing intensive caring to enhance empathy, respect, connectivity, and hope, and to make the experience of a dying patient more tolerable than it otherwise might be. ... I have utilized his Patient Dignity Question, which asks, “What do I need to know about you as a person to take the best care of you possible?” on several occasions with gratifying results for both the patient and me.

When should you refer patients with COPD to palliative care? Physician's Weekly; by Jennifer Philip; 9/17/24 Researchers identified 17 major and 30 minor criteria to guide physicians in referring their patients with COPD to specialty palliative care. ...

Final HOPE materials releasedNAHC email; 9/17/24Hospices will begin completing the Hospice Outcome & Patient Evaluation (HOPE) on October 1, 2025. The final HOPE item sets – HOPE Admission v1.00, HOPE Update Visit (HUV) v1.00, HOPE Discharge v1.00 and HOPE ALL Item v1.00 – and accompanying HOPE Guidance Manual v1.00 were released on September 16. These documents can be accessed from the downloads section on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) HQRP HOPE webpage.[Accessing full article may require membership login.]

Top 5 topics at Modern Healthcare's Leadership SymposiumModern Healthcare; 9/16/24Here are five topics executives shared their thoughts on during the day-long event in Washington, D.C.:

National Alliance for Care at Home CEO Dr. Steven Landers: Build a better future for hospice, home health Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/16/24 Spreading the home-based care community’s message is about more than health care, it also speaks to the priorities and values of society at large, according to Dr. Steven Landers, the newly appointed CEO of the National Alliance for Care at Home (NACH). The alliance last month announced that it had tapped Landers as its top executive. NACH is the newly combined organization formed by the June merger of National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).  Landers on Monday outlined a vision for the alliance at legacy NHPCO’s Annual Leadership Conference in Denver. “The story of this work needs to be told louder, more clearly, with the best possible data, with the strongest team, the best resources, because it’s easy to get drowned out. It’s easy to get drowned out in a world where there’s so many people competing for federal dollars, for attention. I think we’ve got a chance with this alliance,” Landers said at the conference. “This isn’t just about health care. It’s about our society. It’s about our compassion, our love for one another, connectedness. It’s a deep and important cause.” 

AI 'early warning' system shows promise in preventing hospital deaths, study says Pique NewsMagazine, Toronto, Canada; by Nicole Ireland; 9/16/24 An AI early-warning system that predicts which patients are at risk of deteriorating while in hospital was associated with a decrease in unexpected deaths, a new study says. The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found a 26 per cent reduction in non-palliative deaths among patients in St. Michael's Hospital's general internal medicine unit when the AI tool was used. "We've seen that there is a lot of hype and excitement around artificial intelligence in medicine. We've also seen not as much actual deployment of these tools in real clinical environments," said lead author Dr. Amol Verma, a general internal medicine specialist and scientist at the hospital in Toronto. "This is an early example of a tool that's deployed that was rigorously tested and evaluated and where it's showing promise for actually helping improve patient care." ... The technology called CHARTwatch continuously analyzed more than 100 different pieces of information about each patient in the unit, Verma said. When the AI tool predicted that a patient was deteriorating, it sent an alert to physicians and nurses, prompting them to quickly intervene.

Global collaboration launches culturally inclusive palliative care education tool Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 9/16/24 An international collaboration has led to the development of a new palliative care training tool aimed at improving quality and equitable access. Health systems across the globe are recognizing a growing need to boost the supply of providers able to care for a swelling, aging population of serious and terminally ill patients. Rising demand was among the driving forces behind the newly unveiled COllaboratively DEveloped culturalY Appropriate and inclusive Assessment tool for Palliative Care Education (CODE-YAA@PC-EDU). The palliative care education tool was developed in concert by the Council of Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations. The organizations joined forces to design a sustainable training model that could build up the palliative workforce. The project is supported in part by the research network European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).

Three Oaks Hospice reportedly begins sales processHospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/16/24Dallas-based Three Oaks Hospice has reportedly begun seeking a buyer. The private equity-backed hospice launched in 2019 with more than $21 million in investment dollars from Granite Growth Health Partners, Health Velocity Capital and Petra Capital Partners. Rumors of the potential sale were first reported by the website Ion Analytics, which indicated that Three Oaks generates between $12 million and $15 million EBITDA... The company currently operates 28 locations across its eight-state footprint, including Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.