Literature Review

Mission Hospital nurses, HCA agree to new contract Becker's Hospital Review; by Erica Carbajal; 10/10/24 Union nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., have approved a new labor contract with Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, which owns the hospital. National Nurses United, which represents more than 1,600 Mission Hospital nurses, shared news of the new agreement in an Oct. 9 news release. The three-year agreement includes up to 29% wage increases for some nurses, a pilot program to ensure nurses can take meal and rest breaks during their shifts, new measures to ensure nurses are floated to units similar to their usual specialty, and the ability to use preferred names and personal pronouns on name badges. "Mission Hospital is so important to Asheville and all of western North Carolina," Hannah Drummond, RN, a nurse in the hospital's catheterization lab recovery unit, said in the union's news release. "This contract is another step forward to making Mission the hospital it needs to be for our patients. Nurses are the backbone of Mission Hospital, and this contract adds steel to our spine." 

Maryland hospitals face IV shortage as hurricanes hit suppliers The Baltimore Banner; by Sapna Bansil; 10/10/24 Hospitals across Maryland are scrambling to conserve IV fluids after damage from Hurricane Helene last month halted production at the country’s leading manufacturer and triggered a national shortage — which could worsen as Hurricane Milton drenches Florida this week. Baxter International shut down its plant in Marion, N.C., about 35 miles east of Asheville, after it experienced severe flooding and a nearby bridge collapsed. The facility produced 1.5 million bags a day and accounted for 60% of the nation’s supply of IV fluids, according to the American Hospital Association. Another key manufacturing plant, for B. Braun Medical in Daytona Beach, Florida, is in the path of Hurricane Milton. The company said that it planned to temporarily close the facility and that it had relocated its inventory farther north. In a statement posted to its website Wednesday, Baxter said that as it has ramped up production at its global facilities, most customers are now able to receive the majority of what they typically order. There is no timeline on when production will resume in North Carolina.

Florida officials rush to evacuate vulnerable patients ahead of Milton The Washington Post; by David Ovalle and Sabrina Malhi; 10/9/24 at 6:31pm EDT An armada of ambulances, buses and helicopters this week have ferried thousands of sick and vulnerable people to safer ground in a medical evacuation unparalleled in Florida history as monster Hurricane Milton neared landfall. Assisted-living facilities across the Tampa Bay region shuttered as patients were transferred to homes away from the churning Gulf of Mexico and its potentially lethal storm surge. Government-run shelters for special-needs patients and their caregivers were filling to capacity in high schools and community centers across the peninsula. Ambulance crews from as far away as California and New Hampshire transported patients — some on ventilators — to hospitals sometimes hours away. “This storm is pretty unprecedented,” said Ed Powers, a regional manager for Global Medical Response, which deployed about 400 ambulances to Florida. “This is one of the largest, if not the largest, deployments we’ve ever done.” ...Editor's note: Though this news is now "old," it paints a vivid picture for healthcare Emergency Disaster Preparation, policies, partnerships, training of staff, and communication systems. What risk assessments, preparations, and systems do you have in place? What can you improve? 

Palliative care ‘ahead of the game’ in approaches to treating rare diseases Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 10/9/24 Researchers are ramping up efforts to better understand the complex trajectories of rare diseases, with evidence mounting around palliative care’s potential to improve outcomes among those patients. The Center for Innovation & Value Research recently launched the second phase of its Rare Disease Project, an initiative aimed at examining the diverse range of these illnesses and the patients impacted by them. The project is designed to learn more about the innovative, person-centered care models that can help address common challenges that these patients and their caregivers face — including approaches that integrate palliative care services. A pivotal point of the research for palliative care providers is understanding how their services help support patients — physically, practically and spiritually — as their diseases progress, according to Rick Chapman, chief science officer at the Center for Innovation & Value Research, which is part of the National Health Council.

[NonProfit Pro] How to develop your year-end ask strategy NonProfit Pro; by Jeff Schreifels; 10/8/24 There’s no doubt about it — as a fundraiser, you are now in the busiest, most productive time of your year. Hopefully you’ve developed a strategic plan for your whole year and know how to approach the next couple of months to reach your organization’s financial goals.Still, even with a strong plan, developing the right year-end ask amounts can be tricky. I can’t tell you the hundreds of times I have talked to major gift officers who don’t know the details of their caseload or their donors’ interests and situations. ... And what’s worse is once that pressure to get the money starts coming down, you may find yourself asking for gifts that harm the long-term relationship with your donor. The goal is to come to your donor from an authentic place of partnership. ... These questions will form the foundation for your ask strategy. ...

Managers play crucial role in retaining long-term care staff, expert saysMcKnight's Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 10/9/24Managers play a crucial role in retaining direct care workers in long-term care for older adults, Philip Taylor, PhD, FGSA, said Monday during a webinar hosted by the Gerontology Institute at Georgia State University and the Southern Gerontological Society... “The essence of the project was that amid concern about the sector’s workforce, there’s a need to problematize leadership and management to think about their skills deficits and how we might go about addressing them, and to consider the impact of that on the workforce and also ultimately on care quality,” Taylor said. “So I’m interested in these people managing facilities or managing their services.”

Home health sector leads healthcare job growth in September: BLSMcKnight's Home Care; by Adam Healy; 10/7/24Last month, the number of jobs in home healthcare increased by 13,000. That compares with employment gains of 12,000 in hospital care and 9,000 in nursing and residential care facilities. Meanwhile, medical and diagnostic laboratories saw roughly 1,400 workers leave the field. There were approximately 1.8 million home healthcare workers in the US as of September, according to the BLS. That represents a roughly 8.6% increase in the number of home health jobs over the past 12 months.

CMS memo hints at what hospices can expect under Special Focus ProgramMcKnight's Home Care; by Adam Healy; 10/8/24Hospices subjected to Special Focus Program (SFP) scrutiny will undergo frequent surveys, and noncompliant providers may face termination from the Medicare program, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Under the SFP, hospices will receive surveys no less than every six months, and follow-ups may be needed, CMS said in a memo to state hospice survey agencies. Hospices that are found to have condition-level deficiencies will be required to complete appropriate enforcement remedies, which include suspension of payment, civil money penalties, directed plans of correction, directed in-service training or termination, according to CMS’ state operations manual. Hospices that have completed two SFP surveys within 18 months, have zero uncorrected condition-level deficiencies and zero pending immediate jeopardy or condition-level complaints may graduate from the SFP, CMS said. However, any hospice that does not comply with all of CMS’ requirements within the necessary timeframes may be considered for termination.

Ransomware attack at Texas health system spreadsBecker's Health IT; by Giles Bruce; 10/9/24When hackers strike a health system, it can have far-reaching effects beyond just the original target. That's been the case with the Sept. 26 ransomware attack against Lubbock, Texas-based UMC Health System. That event has also ensnared Lubbock-based Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech Physicians, which share IT systems with UMC Health. The medical school and its affiliated physician group are now in downtime, unable to access their EHR or receive patient portal messages or faxes. Their phone lines are experiencing intermittent outages as well. However, their clinics remain open, as do their pharmacies, albeit with reduced capacity.

Helene will likely cause thousands of deaths over decades, study suggests USA Today; by Doyle Rice; 10/2/24 [Note the 10/2 date of this article. Helene's death toll is now 230+ and rising. Hurricane Milton's predictions were new.] A new study ... says that hurricanes and tropical storms are far deadlier than initial death tolls suggest. ... Overall, the death toll of a tropical cyclone may be a broader public health issue than previously thought, as disasters frequently trigger a domino effect of other threats to affected populations. ... Researchers found that these excess deaths were due to causes such as diabetes, suicide, sudden infant death syndrome or another cause that was not recorded. Cardiovascular disease was the next most common cause, followed by cancer. Official government statistics record only the number of individuals killed during these storms. Usually, these direct deaths, which average 24 per storm in official estimates, occur through drowning or some other type of trauma, according to the study. "People are dying earlier than they would have if the storm hadn't hit their community," said senior study author Solomon Hsiang, a professor of environmental social sciences at Stanford University. Looking at the death and destruction from Helene, Hsiang told the Associated Press that "Watching what’s happened here makes you think that this is going to be a decade of hardship on tap, not just what’s happening over the next couple of weeks.”

A guide to creating a comforting hospice facility Cerebral Overload; by Kelly; 10/8/24 Hospice care is for patients nearing the end of their lives and wanting to do so in a comfortable, safe environment. This comfort is incredibly important, as it is integral to supporting patients’ physical and emotional needs during this time of uncertainty. If you are designing a hospice facility, here is a guide to creating a comforting space. The features we discuss will enhance the quality of care and ease the emotional journey of patients and their loved ones.

Florida health-care workers exhausted as Hurricane Milton approaches The Washington Post; by David Ovalle and Sabrina Malhi; 10/8/24The storm shutters are up at Stephen Johnson’s house near the water in North Fort Myers, Fla. ... But  Jones won’t be home when Hurricane Milton is expected to thunder ashore this week along the Gulf Coast. Instead, the paramedic — like thousands of health-care workers across Florida — intends to ride out the storm at work, then jump into action when the winds die down, the waters recede and people seek medical assistance. ... “It gets stressful. You don’t know if you’re going to come back to a home,” Johnson, 28, of Brewster Ambulance Service, said during a brief break Tuesday after two straight days of organizing evacuations of patients from hospitals and assisted-living facilities across Lee County in southwest Florida while surviving on granola bars and energy drinks. ... By Tuesday afternoon, Florida health officials had deployed nearly 600 ambulances, buses and other transport vehicles to ferry patients out of harm’s way. More than 200 health-care facilities — including 115 assisted-living facilities, 10 hospitals and five hospice providers — have reported evacuations, according to the state’s health department.