Literature Review

Valley Health and Blue Ridge Hospice expand partnership to offer hospice care at Shenandoah Memorial HospitalABC WHSV Fox TV 3, by Colby Johnson; 4/10/24 Valley Health and Blue Ridge Hospice are expanding their partnership to be able to offer their collaborative ‘Hospice in the Hospital’ program at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital in Woodstock. The program will allow patients at Shenandoah Memorial to receive end-of-life hospice care. 

City-country mortality gap widens amid persistent holes in rural health care access KFF Health News, by Jazmin Orozco Rodriquez; 4/9/24 The health disparities between rural and urban Americans have long been documented, but a recent report from the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service found the chasm has grown in recent decades. In their examination, USDA researchers found rural Americans from the ages of 25 to 54 die from natural causes, like chronic diseases and cancer, at wildly higher rates than the same age group living in urban areas. ... In 1999, the natural-cause mortality rate for people ages 25 to 54 in rural areas was only 6% higher than for city dwellers in the same age bracket. By 2019, the gap widened to 43%.

Angela Hospice opening a hospice residence at Lourdes Senior Community in Waterford Detroit Regional Chamber, by Angela Hospice; 4/10/24 Angela Hospice will expand its caring services to the Waterford community and beyond, when it begins operating a 15-bed hospice residence at Lourdes Senior Community this summer and providing additional home hospice services in the area. The non-profit will extend its geographic reach further into north Oakland County, offering additional outreach to benefit all in the community, not just those on hospice care, through transformational grief support groups, educational outreach, and their Good Samaritan program, which serves those who are without insurance or the ability to pay for hospice.

Rio Grande Hospital addition designed for wellness [Includes lodging for out-of-town hospice family members] Alamosa Citizen; 4/9/24On the west side of Del Norte, across from a large bison herd, sits Rio Grande Hospital and Clinic. Construction of a large addition, a Wellness Village, is approaching completion with a grand opening planned for June. ... When completed, the wellness village will occupy five acres adjoining the existing hospital campus and will include the multipurpose Wellness Center, four to six small housing units, and four RV hookups. The housing and RV hookup features will enable those who don’t live close by or who are visiting the area to spend time with loved ones in treatment or hospice without having to travel up to 90 miles plus-or-minus every day.

The Sunday Read: 'What deathbed visions teach us about living' New York Times Podcasts, 4/7/24 Chris Kerr was 12 when he first observed a deathbed vision. His memory of that summer in 1974 is blurred, but not the sense of mystery he felt at the bedside of his dying father. ... Kerr now calls what he witnessed an end-of-life vision. His father wasn’t delusional, he believes. ... Kerr followed his father into medicine, and in the last 10 years he has hired a permanent research team that expanded studies on deathbed visions to include interviews with patients receiving hospice care at home and with their families, deepening researchers’ understanding of the variety and profundity of these visions.

Dane County Board approves funding for hospice care program for homeless individualsABC TV 27 WKOW, Madison, WI; by Chloe Morrissey; 4/6/24Multiple organizations aiming to combat homelessness received approval for funding after Thursday night's Dane County Board meeting. One organization, Solace Friends, will be receiving $100,000 for the creation of Solace Home. It's a hospice program for housing insecure individuals given less than 6 months to live. The home can serve up to four people at one time who are currently living on the street, in a shelter or an unstable housing situation. 

Study shows strong social ties may ease the way for older adults in life's final chapter Medical & Life Sciences, by Vijay Kumar Maleus; 4/4/24  Study Results: ... The analysis revealed that higher levels of loneliness were significantly associated with increased odds of experiencing anxiety, sadness, and pain in the last month of life, suggesting a pivotal link between social isolation and end-of-life symptomatology. Furthermore, marital status and the receipt of personal care were predictors of dying in a hospital, pointing to the influence of social support structures on the location of death. Interestingly, a larger social network was correlated with a higher likelihood of receiving hospice or palliative care, highlighting the potential benefits of broader social connections. 

In the spirit of Ramadan: Diverse access to palliative care Medscape UK, by Dr. Mohammed Sattar; 4/4/24 St. Gemma’s Hospice hosted their first ever Ramadan community iftar in Moortown, Leeds on March 19, with almost 100 guests in attendance. For me, this was a historic moment. This iftar was about creating a sense of community. ... [I've] seen the visionary leadership that is provided by St. Gemma’s senior team, ... taking careful consideration of what hospice and palliative care services should look like in an ever-changing Leeds population. The team members ask themselves some difficult questions about how to become an inclusive service for all and no faiths. The iftar, the sunset meal when Muslims break their daily fast, was a testament to that. ...

It’s past time for an upgrade to the Medicare Hospice BenefitHealth Affairs, by Cara L. Wallace and Stephanie P. Wladkowski; 4/5/24When most people think about hospice care, they imagine someone such as the late Rosalynn Carter, who enrolled onto hospice and died within a few days. Jimmy Carter’s long hospice stay, now more than a year, has shown a different model for hospice—one that supports its mission to help people live well, with dignity and quality of life, for whatever time remains. However, current policy restrictions to enroll and remain on hospice make it difficult for many hospice recipients to receive hospice care for “whatever time remains,” as 17.2 percent of Medicare hospice patients are discharged alive. Editor's Note: Many hospices used Jimmy Carter's one-year anniversary as a marketing tool that hospice is not really for the "dying." Many--if not most--of these articles were not transparent in identifying any type of recertification, decertification, or revocation processes. Yes, while it may be past time for CMS to upgrade the Hospice Benefit, it's also past time for hospice marketing to be more transparent with the public.

FDA approves AI Tool that can detect sepsis Forbes, by Cailey Gleeson; 4/3/24 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an AI tool that can diagnose sepsis, Prenosis, the company behind the software, announced Wednesday, the latest in a series of agency approvals for AI diagnostic tools. ... At least 350,000. That’s how many adults who develop sepsis die from the condition or are discharged to hospice annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Mortality, hospice use rates differ in assisted living communities depending on whether memory care is offeredMcKnights Senior Living, by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 4/4/24Assisted living communities that provide memory care services may attract residents closer to the end of life or promote hospice use at the end of life compared with assisted living communities without such services, according to the findings of a new study. ... Researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health, the University of Melbourne and the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing examined whether end-of-life outcomes — mortality and hospice use — differed between assisted living facilities with and without memory care services among 15,152 residents who moved into larger communities between 2016 and 2018.Editor's Note: Click here for the source article, "Do end-of-life outcomes differ by assisted living memory-care designation?"

Meet the women who give end-of-life care to Utah’s homelessGood Things Utah, by Nicea DeGering; 4/2/24A Utah non-profit’s mission is to provide medical help and end-of-life care to those in our community experiencing homelessness. The Inn Between has been providing unique services in Salt Lake City for eight years.  ... [The] mission of The Inn Between is to end the tragedy of vulnerable people dying on the streets of our community by providing medical respite and end-of-life care to those experiencing homelessness.The group provides a home environment that enables adults experiencing homelessness to gain access to professional hospice care from State-licensed hospice agencies; undergo life-saving medical treatment; stabilize in preparation for surgery; or recuperate from serious illness, injury, or surgery. Editor's Note: Read more to meet Jillian Olmsted, Executive Director and Kellie Mierement, Community Engagement Manager.

Code status discussions; difficult but necessary The Hospitalist, by Mark Menet, MD, MPH; 4/1/24 I thought it was just where I practiced, but it turns out that, in the medical field, we’re really bad about having code discussions, which is a significant issue. When some of my patients revealed that no one had ever asked them about their code status before, I decided to conduct some research on this topic. It turns out that, at most, 41% of patients recall discussions about their code status, however, the 10.3% as documented by another study seems much more accurate.