Literature Review

Food drive will aid hospice patients The County, Presque Isle, ME; by Contributed; 9/3/25 Northern Light Home Care and Hospice is holding a patient food drive now through Sept. 22 to support patients experiencing food insecurity. Home Care and Hospice clinicians and home health aides make more than 169,500 in-home visits each year caring for patients across the state. They see first-hand the food insecurity patients are experiencing. “We know that nutrition helps patients have better healing outcomes from a recent surgery or a chronic condition. Worrying about where their next meal is coming from should not be one of their concerns,” said LeighAnn Howard, vice president of clinical operations at Northern Light Home Care and Hospice. Editor's Note: The autumn season is an excellent time to hold your own patient food drive to "support patients experiencing food insecurity." Read this learn from Northern Light Home Care and Hospice innovative outreach and support.

Irish man uses ChatGPT for sore throat advice, later diagnosed with stage 4 cancer TimesNow; by Ashima Sharda Mahindra; 9/1/25 A 37-year-old Irish man from Kerry sought advice on ChatGPT on chronic sore throat and swallowing difficulties – and was ultimately diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal adenocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive throat cancer. Warren Tierney said ChatGPT had reassured him that cancer was “highly unlikely,” which led him to a delay in seeking professional medical care. Months later, Warren was diagnosed with cancer, which has a five-year survival rate between five and ten per cent globally.

Our Hospice Concert raises $71,000 The Republic, Columbus, IN; by Hallie Gallinat; 9/3/25 Organizers say more than 1,200 people attended the 39th annual Our Hospice Summer Concert Saturday at the Circle K Fieldhouse at NexusPark to listen to the music of Elton John, Billy Joel and The Eagles. This year’s concert raised $71,000 to benefit Our Hospice programs and services. Funds raised from the concert directly support Our Hospice’s mission to provide hospice care, bereavement services and palliative care for patients and families across South Central Indiana.

Publicly traded hospice companies seeking acquisitions, reporting substantial growth Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 8/28/25 The nation’s largest hospice companies are seeing significant hospice growth amid executive changes and rising interest in M&A. These are the key themes that emerged during this year’s second quarter earnings season, in which publicly traded home health and hospice companies report their financial results, guidance for the remainder of the year and other key announcements. ... 

CMS updates AHEAD model: 6 things to know Becker's Hospital Review; by Alan Condon; 9/2/25 CMS on Sept. 2 unveiled policy and operational updates to the Achieving Healthcare Efficiency through Accountable Design Model, a state total cost of care initiative launched in 2023 to curb spending, improve population health and advance health equity. Six things to know: 

Social workers’ role in improving hospice live discharge processes Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 8/26/25 A lack of standardized care coordination is challenging the ability for patients and families to receive support following a live discharge from hospice. Deeper integration of social work services may help address the issue. This is according to findings from a recent study published in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, which examined different methodologies for preparing patients, family caregivers and providers for hospice-initiated live discharges from social worker perspectives. 

The VA as a beacon of innovation in serious illness careCTAC blog; by Tom Edes; 8/27/25In this time of federal service reorganization, we are called to remember what history has taught us: innovation rooted in both compassion and evidence can transform care for people with serious illness. Few institutions embody this lesson better than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). For decades, the VA has stood as both a care provider and an innovator, serving Veterans of all ages living with chronic diseases and disabilities... The VA’s story is not just about the past; it is about what is possible for the future of American health care if we choose to invest in it.

Awards and Recognitions: August 2025

Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.

COUNTDOWN: 23 Days Until HOPE Tool Starts, October 1, 2025

Estimating the predictability of questionable open-access journalsScience Advances; by Han Zhuang, Lizhen Liang, Daniel E. Acuna; 8/25Questionable journals threaten global research integrity, yet manual vetting can be slow and inflexible. Here, we explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to systematically identify such venues by analyzing website design, content, and publication metadata. Evaluated against extensive human-annotated datasets, our method achieves practical accuracy and uncovers previously overlooked indicators of journal legitimacy... Our study defines “questionable open-access journals” as journals violating the best practices outlined by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and showing indicators of low editorial standards.Publisher's note: The authors use AI to evaluate open-access journals adherence to best publishing practices - an interesting use of AI that could be applied to many other settings. The list of open-access journals can be found here.

Understanding trauma in the context of direct care work in nursing homesJournal of Applied Gerontology; by Alfred Boakye, Jennifer Craft Morgan, Candace L. Kemp, Antonius D. Skipper; 8/25Direct care workers (DCWs) experience job quality challenges such as heavy workload, low pay, and few benefits. Layered risks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism have impacted DCWs, made them more vulnerable, and increased turnover and the precarity of the long-term care system and residents’ care. Findings suggest that DCWs are often crippled with challenges stemming from the impact of COVID-19, work-related factors, and personal factors. Understanding the intersection of trauma provides a detailed contextual description of care work, which is important for developing practical coping strategies, either at the personal or organizational levels, and developing more refined trauma-informed initiatives to build resilience and support DCWs.