Literature Review

NMDOJ charges ‘imposter nurse’ who treated hospice patients in Albuquerque KRQE News, Albuquerque, NM; by Fallon Fischer; 8/28/25 A certified nurse assistant in Albuquerque is facing charges for allegedly stealing the identities of three nurses and illegally providing care to hospice patients, and in one case, almost causing one patient to die via a morphine overdose, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice. This week, a Bernalillo County grand jury issued an indictment against April Guadalupe Hernandez, 26, for 19 counts of misconduct including identity theft, nursing without a license, fraud totaling approximately $40,000, abuse of a resident, violations of the Nursing Practice Act and more. “To exploit trusting patients in their most vulnerable moments is unconscionable,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated in part, in a news release. 

Fed action toward medical journals is “dangerous,” ethicist saysMedscape; by Arthur L. Caplan; 8/26/25Not so long ago, a letter was sent by a federal prosecutor to a journal editor that I think raises issues that ought to be not partisan and not political, but that physicians and physician researchers have to make clear they oppose... [The editor] got this letter that basically said the US attorney was asking, how does your journal handle “misinformation and competing viewpoints,” among other things... This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what journals are about. As I hope all of you watching understand, journals are aimed at medical people, at researchers, and at people who work in healthcare. They’re not the modality for educating the public... Medical journals - whether you read them or whether you use them to disseminate your research, findings, or clinical experience - ought to be removed from government intrusion.

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.

Alliance submits comments in response to CY 2026 Home Health Proposed Rule National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 8/29/25 As the federal comment period draws to a close, the National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) has joined an unprecedented number of providers and patients in submitting formal feedback to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the agency’s proposed 9% cut to the home health payment rate for 2026. The unusually high volume of responses collected throughout the comment window underscores broad concern that the $1 billion payment reduction will limit access to care at home, compromise patient safety, and burden the wider healthcare system.  

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Awards and Recognitions: August 2025

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Labor Day stands for America's greatest resource--not its minerals, its timber or its farmland, but its people. ~ Gerald Ford

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to be able to make sacrifices for it. ~ Maya Angelou

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it. ~ Mother Teresa

The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. ~ Richard Bach

You can’t do a good job if your job is all you do. ~ Katie Thurmes

Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. ~ Dolly Parton