Literature Review

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.

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." 

Two Los Angeles-area residents arrested on indictment alleging scheme to fraudulently obtain and launder Medicare proceedsUnited States Attorney's Office - Central District of California; Press Release; 10/9/24 A Los Angeles woman and a San Fernando Valley man were arrested today on a 24-count federal grand jury indictment alleging a scheme to defraud Medicare out of more than $54 million via hospice and diagnostic testing services that were never provided and then laundered their illicit proceeds, including by buying millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars and coins. Sophia Shaklian, 36, of the Larchmont area of Los Angeles, and Alex Alexsanian, 47, of Burbank, were arrested early this morning. They are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. ... According to the indictment that a federal grand jury returned on October 2, Shaklian, often using aliases, managed and submitted claims for seven health care providers enrolled with Medicare and located in Los Angeles County. These businesses included a hospice company she owned – the Pasadena-based Chateau d’Lumina Hospice and Palliative Care – and several diagnostic testing companies: Saint Gorge Radiology in Sylmar; Hope Diagnostics in North Hollywood; Direct Imaging & Diagnostics and Lab One – both located in Hollywood; and Labtech and Lifescan Diagnostics in Claremont.

Florida hospitals reopen post-Milton Becker's Hospital Review; by Molly Gamble; 10/10/24, 5:00 pm EDT Florida hospitals' emergency preparedness largely proved effective throughout Hurricane Milton, leaving some in a position to resume normal operations Friday, Oct. 11. Such is the case for 1,041-bed Tampa General Hospital, the region's only level 1 trauma center. On its main campus, Tampa General healthcare providers and staff who are trained in emergency management remained on-site throughout the storm to care for patients. The hospital did not experience major power outages due to reinforcement from its Central Energy Plant, built in 2022 at 33 feet above sea level. TGH planned to resume normal operations on Friday, Oct. 11. HCA Florida Healthcare began resuming operations for several sites on Oct. 10, reopening three locations that had been temporarily closed in hurricane preparations. Before Milton made landfall at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 9 as a Category 3 storm, 313 healthcare facilities in the state reported evacuations, including 17 hospitals. All hospitals that remained open before the hurricane remained operational the morning of Oct. 10, with the exception of HCA Florida Largo Hospital, which evacuated about 230 patients early Wednesday morning due to flooding in the facility's basement. While Florida hospital facilities withstood Hurricane Milton relatively well, the state's healthcare system is expected to face ongoing pressure. Flooding and storm damage are likely to disrupt outpatient and community-based services, such as pharmacies, which could lead to higher patient volumes in emergency departments.

Free access to Spanish digital nursing text: Oct 10-20, honoring World Hospice and Palliative Care DayLife and Death Matters (Canada); Kath Murray; 10/10/24Life and Death Matters is giving free access to our digital nursing text Lo Esencial en Cuidedos Paliativos: Un Recurso Practico en Enfermeria (Spanish) and companion workbook to health care providers. October 12th to celebrate WHPCD.  Register and sign up below for free access to the digital text! [Updates, not on the webpage] Free access is being extended to healthcare clinicians and leaders throughout the United States, from October 10-20, 2024. Click here to register for free access.  Edits from Kath Murray, CEO/Founder of Life and Death Matters, updated information from this webpage:]

Hospice care home provides peaceful place for low-income or homeless to die Indiana Capital Chronicle; by Elise Shrock; 10/10/24 My neighborhood is full of wonderful places. Lovely places where people go to worship, to meet for meals, to do their errands, and, a lovely place to die. Let me explain. Tucked behind the busy near-north Keystone corridor is the Abbie Hunt Bryce Home, a no-cost home for terminally ill individuals who are low-income or homeless and would have no other home to go to during their last days or months of life. Operated by Morning Light, LLC, Abbie Hunt Bryce Home offers critical and compassionate services to Hoosiers in their final days. As the second largest residential hospice in the nation, our state is positioned to be a leader in providing compassionate end-of-life care. Not only is the Home a leader in size and scope, but all hospice residents stay free of charge, with no payment or insurance required. The Home is supported solely by community support and qualifies for Medicaid Waiver. ... [A case study follows with "Systemic challenges in Indiana." ...]

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? 

[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. ...

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.

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.

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.”

Community making strides to reopen Owatonna's Hospice House Owatonna People's Press, Faribault, MN; by Annie Harman; 10/8/24 ... Allan and Randee Radel smiled as they remembered the days they relied on the Homestead Hospice House to care for Randee’s mother, Kaye Mahlman, during the final days of her life. “It was wonderful. It was good for her, and it was good for the family,” Randee said, looking at the house as visitors strolled inside. ... It has been more than a year since the Hospice House has cared for a patient, but there is movement being made to open the doors once again as a full-service residential hospice care facility. And thanks to the Radels, that dreaming has taken a significant step toward reality. The couple handed over a check this week to the HHH Board to put toward the $850,000 fundraising goal to reopen the house. While the couple has decided they’d rather just call it a “very generous donation,” in lieu of sharing the actual number, those involved in the fundraising efforts are not shy to say with confidence that, thanks to the Radels and others like them, they are making “significant progress” in reaching that goal. ...

Concurrent/simultaneous services from Hospice and a Home and Community Based Services waiver Media.Alabama.gov; State of Alabama Press Release - Medicaid; 10/8/24 The Alabama Medicaid Agency (Medicaid) updated the policy to allow concurrent services from hospice and a Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Waiver. However, it is vital that the hospice and HCBS waiver case manager coordinate to avoid duplication of services. The HCBS waiver person-centered care plan (PCCP) and hospice plan of care (POC) of the recipient should be coordinated between the hospice, HCBS waiver case manager, and the recipient and his/her caregiver. A conference that includes these parties must be held before concurrent services can start.  The PCCP/POC conference shall be documented in both the recipient’s hospice and waiver record. The PCCP/POC should specify all concurrent services, the frequency of services, and which entity will provide the service. Each HCBS Waiver service included in the PCCP/POC should have an explanation as to why the service is not covered under hospice. [Click on the title's link for more information.]