Literature Review

St. Croix Hospice improves access to end-of-life care with new branch in Clarinda, IAPR Newswire, by St. Croix Hospice; 2/29/24St. Croix Hospice expands their presence in Iowa with a new branch in Clarinda. This location marks the fifteenth St. Croix Hospice branch in Iowa and helps patients and families residing in the surrounding communities access exceptional hospice care from local caregivers and clinical staff.

Many older adults don't receive palliative care before deathMedScape, by Marilynn Larkin; 2/28/24 "One of the challenges and a barrier to accessing palliative home care is the difficulty of predicting survival," Amy Hsu, PhD, an investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, told Medscape Medical News. "Clinicians are good at prognosticating when a patient might be entering their last 3-6 weeks of life, but they have a harder time predicting if someone will survive 6 months or longer."  The team developed the Risk Evaluation for Support: Predictions for Elder-life in their Communities Tool (RESPECT) to see whether access to predicted survival data could inform conversations about a patient's status and palliative care needs. The study was published online on February 26 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The Medicare Care Choices Model was associated with reductions in disparities in the use of hospice care for Medicare beneficiaries with terminal illnessHealth Serv Res by Matthew J Niedzwiecki, Lauren Vollmer Forrow, Jonathan Gellar, R Vincent Pohl, Arnold Chen, Lynn Miescier, Keith Kranker; 2/29/24 Conclusions: Medicare Choices Model (MCCM) increased hospice use and quality of end-of-life care for model enrollees from underserved groups and reduced disparities in hospice use and having multiple emergency department visits.

Racial differences in shared decision-making about critical illnessJAMA Intern Med, by Deepshikha C. Ashana, MD, MBA, MS; Whitney Welsh, PhD; Doreet Preiss, PhD; et al; published online 2/26/24Question: How do critical care clinicians approach shared decision-making with Black compared with White caregivers of critically ill patients?Findings: In a thematic analysis of 39 audio-recorded clinician-caregiver meetings, racial differences were most evident in the following clinician behaviors: providing emotional support to caregivers, acknowledging trust and gratitude expressed by caregivers, disclosing medical information, and validating caregivers' treatment preferences.

5 cost-effective home care marketing tipsMcKnights Home Care, by Catherine Malloy; 2/22/24Are you running a home care business and looking for affordable ways to get the word out? You’re in the right place! In this blog, we’re going to walk you through five practical, budget-friendly marketing strategies to boost your business’s visibility. 

Why long-term hospice care might be goodNBC KPRC TV, interview with Joseph Rotella, MD MBA HMDC FAAHPM, Chief Medical Director American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; 2/21/24Most people receiving hospice care don't live for more than a few weeks. Doctor explains why receiving hospice care earlier can be beneficial.

Racial differences in hospice care outcomes among patients with advanced heart failure: Systematic review and meta-analysisAm J Cardiol, by Diego Chambergo-Michilot, Victor G Becerra-Gonzales, Veraprapas Kittipibul, Rosario Colombo, Katia Bravo-Jaimes; 2/19/24There remains a paucity of investigational data about disparities in hospice services among people with non-cancer diagnoses, specifically in heart failure. Black patients with advanced heart failure have been disproportionally affected by health care services inequities but their outcomes after hospice enrollment are not well studied. We aimed to describe race-specific outcomes in patients with advanced heart failure who were enrolled in hospice services.

At life's end, the comfort of home: Rutgers study illuminates pathways to hospice careBNN, by Hadeel Hashem; 2/22/24[This] research underscores a simple yet profound truth: the utilization of home health care significantly boosts the likelihood of receiving hospice care at home during one's final days.

Rural-urban disparities and trends in utilization of palliative care services among US patients with metastatic breast cancerJ Rural Health; by Jincong Q Freeman, Adam W Scott, and Ted O Akhiwu; 2/20/24Purpose: To assess trends and rural-urban disparities in palliative care utilization among patients with metastatic breast cancer.Conclusions: In this national, racially diverse sample of patients with metastatic breast cancer, the utilization of palliative care services increased over time, though remained suboptimal. Further, our findings highlight rural-urban disparities in palliative care use and suggest the potential need to promote these services while addressing geographic access inequities for this patient population.

Embodied decisions unfolding over time: a meta-ethnography systematic review of people with cancer's reasons for delaying or declining end-of-life careBMC Palliat Care, by Jessica Young, Antonia Lyons, Richard Egan, and Kevin Dew; 2/19/24Conclusions: Decisions about when (and for some, whether at all) to accept end-of-life care are made in a complex system with preferences shifting over time, in relation to the embodied experience of life-limiting cancer. Time is central to patients' end-of-life care decision-making. ... The integration of palliative care across the cancer care trajectory and earlier introduction of end-of-life care highlight the importance of these findings for improving access whilst recognising that accessing end-of-life care will not be desired by all patients.

Medicare home health patients more likely to eventually receive hospice care, study finds McKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy; 2/20/24Patients who use home health later in life tend to be more likely to enter hospice for end-of-life care — particularly those without dementia. This underscores the need for better home health staff training and enhanced care continuity for Medicare patients, according to a recent study. ... Those beneficiaries who received home healthcare were more likely to enter hospice during their last year of life compared to those who did not have any home health, the study published Feb. 15 in the Journal of Palliative Medicine found.

NorthStar Care Community partners with Centrica Care Navigators affiliate, creating one of the largest not-for-profit providers in the United StatesHospice of Michigan; retrieved 2/19/24Centrica’s community-leading presence in southwest Michigan will be a strong complement to the capabilities that Hospice of Michigan and Arbor Hospice bring to the state. By joining the NorthStar Care Community, they can ensure that a strong not-for-profit provider is an option in southwest Michigan for those needing serious illness care for years to come.