Literature Review

Health systems creating new IT C-suite roles Becker's Hospital Review, by Naomi Diaz; 4/19/24 In response to evolving demands within the healthcare landscape, hospitals and health systems are reconfiguring their C-suites and leadership teams to align with organizational priorities. Among the recent developments, several institutions have introduced new roles to their executive teams. [Click on the title's link for examples.]

Support mounts for increased hospice accreditor oversightHospice News; by Holly Vossel; 4/16/24Calls are growing louder in support of increased accreditation organization oversight that could help curb fraudulent activity in the hospice space. In a proposed rule released in February the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced a number of provisions aimed at addressing conflicts of interest and establishing more consistent standards, processes and definitions among accreditation entities. The proposed increased oversight would be an important step forward in addressing instances of fraud, waste and abuse in hospice, according to members of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA). Regulatory changes such as these would be particularly significant in detecting maleficence in regions like California, which have a rise in program integrity challenges, the organization stated in a recent letter to Congress shared with Hospice News.Notable mentions: Sheila Clark, California Hospice and Palliative Care Association.

Community partnership with Hinds Hospice brings supportYourCentralValley.com - MedWatch Today; by Juanita Adame; 4/22/24Facing difficult end-of-life decisions for loved ones is difficult. Community Regional Medical Centers has partnered with Hinds Hospice to bring in an extra layer of support to patients and their families inside the hospital. The services are for patients who cannot be cared for at the home during their end-of-life journey. “We started looking at institutions that could partner with us around delivering inpatient hospice care, not only to reduce our length of stay but to be able to provide a higher level of care for patients in hospice,” said Tina Gulbronsen, VP of Capacity Management at Community Medical Centers. “So this change means that there are some patients that can’t be discharged safely  because they are in some sort of crisis.”

Hospice volunteers share their ‘why’ The Journal, by Lores Morton; 4/21/2024 From volunteer Lores Morton: Why am I a volunteer for Hospice of the Panhandle? It is for our patient’s caregivers, to give them break relief; to share what may be missing with patient’s spiritual support; to be a memory keeper — legacy; to give simple visitation; and, also, to volunteer administratively for Light Up a Life. ...  From volunteer Kelly Orwig, "My why has evolved, but at the core, is that I love people. I love people who need love. Death and dying are natural, but over our lives, we’ve been socialized to fear death to the point that we fear those who are dying. ...." 

AI-generated draft replies integrated into health records and physicians’ electronic communication JAMA Network; by Ming Tai-Seale, PhD, MPH; Sally L. Baxter, MD, MSc; Florin Vaida, PhD; et al; 4/15/24Objective: To investigate the association between GenAI-drafted replies for patient messages and physician time spent on answering messages and the length of replies.Conclusions and Relevance: In this QI study, GenAI-drafted replies were associated with significantly increased read time, no change in reply time, significantly increased reply length, and some perceived benefits. 

If you love the work you are doing, then you will love Tuesday! - Catherine Pulsifer

Hospice nurse plays instrumental role in patient’s joy Scottsdale Progress, by Lin Sue Flood; 4/20/24 You see it at every symphony performance. People so enraptured by the music — their eyes close and their fingers dance in the air. Stuart Brown is one of those people. But as illness began to limit his mobility, the 81-year-old Scottsdale man relinquished the thought of ever attending a live concert again. That’s when his Hospice of the Valley nurse secretly reached out to the Phoenix Symphony with a request to hold a small private concert in his Scottsdale home.

Jean Smart to star in end-of-life limited series in works at her SmartAngel EntertainmentMSN, by Nellie Andreeva; 4/21/24 Jean Smart (Hacks) is developing a limited series about the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson in the final months of her life, which the Emmy winner will star in and executive produce. ...  The poignant and funny story centers around a grandmother, played by Smart, at the end of her life and her 20-something gay grandson who reluctantly becomes her caretaker. He moves into her Catholic senior living facility, where she lives alongside a mix of traditional and hippie nuns.

Change in long-term care: Nursing homes across U.S. closing limaohio.com, by Precious Grundy; 4/19/24... According to the American Health Care Association website, more than 1,000 nursing homes have closed in the United States since 2015. ... According to the Population Reference Bureau website, in 2050 the population older than 65 will increase from 58 million (in 2022) to 82 million in just a few decades. The topic of long-term care will remain in questions. The American Health Care Association also said nursing homes across the United States have closed due to staffing shortages. ... Older adults now have the option of a home health aide, assisted living facilities and family caregivers.Editor's Note: How is this trend playing out in your service area? How do these closures impact your referral sources? Your hospice patients in skilled nursing facilities and memory care units? Accuity of patient care needs in the home, assisted living?  Hospital-in-the-home? The palliative care services you provide?

Md. health dept. processed 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees in 12 months; one month left in ‘unwinding’Maryland Matters, by Danielle J. Brown; 4/19/24... Prior to the pandemic people with Medicaid insurance had to reapply annually. Medicaid terminations were paused over the COVID pandemic in order to ensure people were covered during a global health crisis. But starting in 2023, Medicaid re-enrollments were no longer automatic, and people had to reenroll in the program to continue coverage in a period often referred to as the ‘Medicaid unwind.’ ... At the start of the unwinding period, the data show that there were about 1,787,000 people enrolled in Medicaid in March 2023. A year later, there are 1,690,000 people covered by the program. ... But most of the terminations are due to what are called “procedural terminations,” which means that someone either did not start or did not complete their Medicaid reapplication. ... People with procedural terminations have short window after losing coverage when they can reapply to Medicaid and get covered again if they are still eligible.  

Integrating AI in Palliative Care: A comparative perspectiveElBlog.PL - Decoding AI: Unveiling the Future of Machine Intelligence, by Roman Rember; 4/19/2Jan Gärtner (51), the head of a Palliative Center in Basel, Switzerland, recently shed light on the fundamental differences in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in palliative care across the United States and Switzerland. ... The Swiss model emphasizes the commencement of palliative care much earlier in the patient’s journey. ...

Increasing Hospice CAHPS scores through enhanced caregiver training Hospice News, by Jim Parker; 4/19/24 Improving education and training for family caregivers may give hospices’ quality scores a boost. Maryland-based Hospice of the Chesapeake has introduced a standardized caregiver training program designed to enhance the work they had previously done in this area. After a review of scientific literature, it became clear that nationally, caregiver training was spotty, and this affected families’ perceptions of the care their loved one received, Monica Ferebee, clinical manager of hospice at Hospice of the Chesapeake ... More than 70% of hospice patients are primarily cared for by untrained family caregivers with no medical background, Ferebee found. She led Chesapeake’s change project to address these concerns, and thereby improve performance on Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys. 

Black patients with ovarian cancer had lower-quality end-of-life care, study says American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), by Brooke McCormick; 4/21/24 Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) patients with ovarian cancer (OC) received lower-quality end-of-life (EOL) care than non-Hispanic White (NHW) patients, according to a study published in Cancer Research Communications. ... Although trends and disparities in EOL care among patients with OC are well documented, the researchers noted that the role of health care access (HCA) in quality EOL care has not been well characterized; HCA is comprised of 5 distinct, interrelated care access dimensions, namely affordability, availability, accessibility, accommodation, and acceptability.