Literature Review

Medical marijuana study details Arkansans’ use of the drug, raises questions from lawmakers Arkansas Times; by Tess Vrbin for the Arkansas Advocate; 8/15/24 ... The study, conducted by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, is the first ever population-based study of medical marijuana funded by a federal health agency, the National Institutes of Health. ... The state currently has more than 105,000 cardholders, an increase of roughly 29,000 in three years, according to ACHI’s study. ... Lawmakers on the Joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee ... expressed concerns about some of the information in the study, such as the fact that one-third of the certifications for medical marijuana cards in 2021 came from just seven doctors, with little evidence of a physician-patient relationship in many cases.Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana to some extent, and Arkansas is one of 14 states in which the drug is legal only for medicinal purposes.

YoloCares: Overregulated California skips key regulations Our Community Now (OCN); by Craig Dresang, Special to The Enterprise; 8/17/24 California is the most heavily regulated state in the country. According to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Golden State has 420,434 regulatory restrictions which is more than double the national average. ... So, it seems ironic that certain critically important sectors in California that impact the well-being, health and quality of life for millions of seniors are grossly unchecked and mis-regulated. My husband, who has owned and operated salons for nearly 30 years, pointed out that California’s Board of Barbering and Cosmetology (BBC) appears to have more rigorous rules and regulations for nail technicians than it does for board-and-care (B&C) owners or privately owned hospice companies. ... [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

Destitute and dying: Interventions and models of palliative and end of life care for homeless adults – a systematic review BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care; United Kingdom; by Megan Rose Coverdale and Fliss Murtagh; 8/24 We identified key components of care to optimise the support for homeless adults needing palliative and end of life care: advocacy; multidisciplinary working; professional education; and care in the community. Future research must include the perspectives of those who are homeless. 

Hospice care for those with dementia falls far short of meeting people’s needs at the end of life University of Michigan; by Maria J. Silveira; 8/18/24 ... Strikingly, only 12% of Americans with dementia ever enroll in hospice. Among those who do, one-third are near death. This is in stark contrast to the cancer population: Patients over 60 with cancer enroll in hospice 70% of the time. In my experience caring for dementia patients, the underuse of hospice by dementia patients has more to do with how hospice is structured and paid for in the U.S. than it does patient preference or differences between cancer and dementia. ... In the U.S., ... Medicare’s rules and regulations make it hard for dementia patients to qualify for hospice when they and their families need support the most – long before death. In Canada, where hospice is structured entirely differently, 39% of dementia patients receive hospice care in the last year of life. ...

A.L.S. stole his voice. A.I. retrieved it. DNYUZ, originally posted in The New York Times; 8/15/24Four years ago, Casey Harrell sang his last bedtime nursery rhyme to his daughter. By then, A.L.S. had begun laying waste to Mr. Harrell’s muscles, stealing from him one ritual after another: going on walks with his wife, holding his daughter, turning the pages of a book. “Like a night burglar,” his wife, Levana Saxon, wrote of the disease in a poem. ... Last July, doctors at the University of California, Davis, surgically implanted electrodes in Mr. Harrell’s brain to try to discern what he was trying to say. ... Yet the results surpassed expectations, the researchers reported on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, setting a new bar for implanted speech decoders and illustrating the potential power of such devices for people with speech impairments.

How Texas healthcare facilities can prepare for new workplace violence prevention standards for healthcare workers JW News; by Jeffrey H. Frost; 8/14/24 ... On May 15, 2023, Governor Abbott signed SB 240, relating to workplace violence prevention in certain healthcare facilities. ... Texas healthcare facilities must meet Chapter 331 workplace violence prevention requirements by September 1, 2024. ... Covered facilities [which includes hospice] must establish a workplace violence prevention committee, prevention plan, and policy. ... At a minimum, the prevention plan must: (i) be tailored to the practice setting; (ii) define “workplace violence”; (iii) provide for annual training; (iv) review physical security and safety; (v) create a reporting system; and (vi) adjust the care assignments (if possible) of employees and providers who have been assaulted or threatened. Editor's Note: For non-Texas hospice and palliative providers, what Workplace Violence Prevention Plan do you have in place, or not? This article provides excellent information and action plans for you to use.

The Hastings Center awarded $1.5 million by PCORI to study organizational trustworthiness and community-engaged research  EurekAlert! AAAS; Susan Gilbert, The Hastings Center; 8/13/24 A research team at The Hastings Center has been approved for $1.5 million in funding by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study organizational trustworthiness as it relates to community-engaged research. Led by Virginia A. Brown, PhD, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, the study will be the first to investigate the role of organizational trustworthiness in shaping research engagement processes and outcomes. 

25 fastest-growing healthcare companies of 2024 Becker's Hospital Review; by Giles Bruce; 8/13/24 The Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in 2024, released Aug. 13, includes 320 that focus on health services. The magazine ranks the companies by percentage revenue growth over the last three years. Here are the top 25 health services firms that made the list this year (and where they rank): [Click on this title's link to continue reading]

Dr. Oswalt on the effects of palliative care timing on end-of-life care in mNSCLC OncLive, Oncology Specialty Group; by Cameron James Oswalt, MD; 8/15/24 Cameron James Oswalt MD, fellow, Hematology-Oncology, assistant professor, medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, discusses findings from a study evaluating the timing of palliative care referral and its effect on end-of-life care outcomes in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC). ...  Investigators found that fewer than half of patients received palliative care during their treatment course, and fewer than one-third of the patients who received palliative care accessed this care within 2 months of diagnosis, ... The low referral rate in this cohort could be attributed to several factors, including patient preferences, preconceived notions, barriers to referral, and overall disease burden, he says. Among patients who died, 59.1% were enrolled in hospice. 

Navigating the complexities of life and caregiving WorldHealth.net; by Pat Baker; 8/16/24 As individuals advance through different life stages, especially when tasked with caregiving or managing the challenges of aging, they encounter a complex web of intertwined challenges. ... This article explores the multifaceted nature of caregiving and aging, offering insights and strategies that can help individuals manage these demanding situations effectively. ... As the population ages and the demand for caregiving increases, it is crucial to continue developing strategies and policies that support caregivers and enhance the quality of care. Editor's Note: Examine 75+ caregiver education and support videos designed for hospices to use with the primary caregiver and family members you serve: Family Support through Serious Illness; Hospice Training for Caregivers and Families; Want to Understand Your Grief? Includes 10 hospice & 11 grief videos in Spanish. Designed and delivered via our newsletter's sponsor, Composing Life Out of Loss.

When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that firefighters usually use water. ~ Unknown

Four years and more than 200,000 deaths later: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in US nursing homesHealth Affairs; by R. Tamara Konetzka, David C. Grabowski, Vincent Mor; 7/24Nursing home residents and staff were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing attention to long-standing challenges of poor infection control, understaffing, and substandard quality of care in many facilities. Evolving practices and policies during the pandemic often focused on these challenges, with little effect. Despite the emergence of best practices to mitigate transmission of the virus, even the highest-quality facilities experienced outbreaks, indicating a larger systemic problem, rather than a quality problem at the facility level. Here we present a narrative review and discussion of the evolution of policies and practices and their effectiveness, drawing on evidence from the United States that was published during 2020–23.

Making your Customer Experience [CX] investment strategy work CMSWire [not to be confused with CMS=Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services]; by Jeb Dasteel, Amir Hartman, Brian P. O'Neill and Marc Madigan; 8/12/24 Uncover the key elements of a successful customer experience strategy, from capability planning to aligning with core business objectives. ... Investing in a customer experience strategy is fraught with complications and feelings. Most of us in the world of CX are here because we believe that thoughtful CX spending will make an impact on the performance of our company.Editor's Note: This article is for a much larger scope than our hospice and palliative readership. However, it highlights the importance of tying "customers' experiences" to the company/organization's core goals and business objectives. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' CAHPS Hospice Compare Scores [not to be confused with this CMSWire source] reflect the hospice "customer experience," from the perspective of the bereaved caregiver. While the CMS Hospice Compare site sorts these public information scores alphabetically (per location and organization), our newsletter's sponsor Hospice Analytics' National Hospice Locator sorts this same data by highest scores, for the purpose of helping the public "consumer" find the hospice that will provide them with the best "customer experience."