Literature Review

Senior care experts detail how to build a coveted ‘destination workplace’ McKnights Home Care; by Josh Henreckson; 6/27/24 Faced with today’s complex array of financial, staffing and regulatory challenges, senior care operators need to rely on a broad range of workplace solutions, a panel of experts said. ... Providers should be actively listening to their employees’ needs and trying to meet the evolving desires of the labor market, they emphasized at McKnight’s “Meeting of the Minds” thought-leader discussion. This must take place whether they’re pursuing recruiting strategies, trying to improve staff retention, integrating new technological advances or investing in new benefits and professional development. “The one area that’s going to undergird everything for your success is paying attention to the most important capital, which is human capital,” said Navin Gupta, CEO at software provider Viventium. “Pay attention to the caregiver experience from recruitment … to retention to recognition and development — the entire journey."

AMA Advocacy 2024 efforts American Medical Association; by AMA; Updated June 2024, 6/27/24 There are far too many everyday practice challenges interfering with patient care. That’s why the American Medical Association is advocating to keep physicians at the head of the health care team, reform the Medicare physician payment system, relieve the burdens of overused prior authorizations and so much more. [Key advocacy efforts include:]

Chronic loneliness and the risk of incident stroke in middle and late adulthood: a longitudinal cohort study of U.S. older adults eClinical Medicine, Part of THE LANCET Discovery Science; by Yenee Soh, Ichiro Kawachi, Laura D. Kubzansky, Lisa F. Berkman, and Henning Tiemeier; 6/24/24 Loneliness has been implicated as a stroke risk factor, yet studies have examined loneliness at only one time point. The association of loneliness changes and risk of incident stroke remains understudied. Our aim was to examine the association of loneliness with incident stroke, particularly the role of loneliness chronicity. Chronic loneliness was associated with higher stroke risk independent of depressive symptoms or social isolation. Addressing loneliness may have an important role in stroke prevention, and repeated assessments of loneliness over time may help identify those particularly at risk.Editor's Note: This is the source research for an article we posted yesterday, 6/28/24, titled 

HHS to impose penalties on providers that block patients’ health information McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 6/24/24In a bid to promote easier access and exchange of patients’ health records, the Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule Monday outlining penalties for providers that block access to electronic health information. ... Fragmented and inaccessible patient data can prevent long-term and post-acute care providers from seeing the full picture of a patients’ health. Hospitals, for example, are not required to share updates about a patient’s health with the patient’s post-acute care provider. As a result, home health and home care agencies frequently cannot access patients’ electronic health records to help assess and treat patients. Three disincentives: ... First, hospitals that commit information blocking can be subject to a reduction of three quarters of an annual market basket update. Second, clinicians eligible for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System will receive a zero score in the “promoting interoperability performance” MIPS category, which can be equivalent to roughly a quarter of the clinician’s MIPS score in a given year. Lastly, providers that participate in information blocking can have their Medicare Shared Savings Program or Accountable Care Organization eligibility revoked for at least one year. ...Editor's Note: Almost any solution raises additional challenges. How does HIPAA interface with this? How might a cyberattack at a hospital (or other healthcare agency) affect the patients' other agencies, putting them at risk as well?

NIH: Hot weather safety for older adults OSHA: Heat - Working in outdoor and indoor heat environmentsOSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration; retrieved from their website 6/18/24 

Addus to buy Gentiva’s personal care assets for $350 million Home Health Care News; by Andrew Donlan; 6/10/24 Addus HomeCare Corp. is set to acquire Gentiva’s personal care assets for about $350 million.Those assets amount to over 16,000 home care patients per day, in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Addus – which just left the state of New York – will fund the acquisition through its existing revolving credit facility. “We believe this acquisition is a great strategic fit for Addus, and we are excited about the opportunity to expand our personal care market coverage in seven states, including Texas and Missouri, which are new markets for Addus,” Addus CEO Dirk Allison said. ... Addus currently provides home care, home health care and hospice services to over 49,000 consumers through 214 locations spanning 22 states.

NYCHA, HPD and HDC celebrate completion of nearly 200 units of senior housing in Bed-Stuy New York Law School; by Veronica Rose; 5/28/24 On May 23, 2024, the New York City Housing Authority, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York City Housing Development Corporation celebrated the completion of the Atrium at Sumner project, a new eleven-story residence for seniors. ... Of these 190 units, 57 apartments have been reserved for seniors who formerly experienced homelessness, and 132 apartments are available to senior households at 50 percent area median income or less. ... On-site social services will be provided through Selfhelp’s Active Services for Aging Model with voluntary social work support for individual residents and a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE Center) on the ground floor open to residents. 

Transformative peer connections: Early experiences from the ASCO Palliative Care Community of Practice American Society of Clinical Oncology; by Mazie Tsang, Cristiane Bergerot, Natasha Dhawan, Rushil Patel, Darcy Burbage, Tingting Zhang, Jafar Al-Mondhiry, Joseph McCollom, Ramy Sedhom; 5/22/24 online ahead of print in June 2024  ... there are barriers to implementing palliative oncology at many institutions for myriad reasons. ... In this article, we discuss an innovative strategy that ASCO implemented called the Communities of Practice (CoP). We share our experiences as the Palliative Care CoP and how our group seeks to develop processes and structures to collectively promote systemic change and enhance palliative care delivery for people with cancer. Our Palliative Care CoP engages with senior leaders, administrators, and those in power to achieve a shared vision of delivering holistic health care for people with serious illness. ... [We address] eight main domains:

Tuesday Health launches revolutionary Supportive Care solution with $60 million of strategic investment from healthcare leadersInvestors Observier; by PR Newswire; 5/21/24Tuesday Health, a pioneer in value-based care dedicated to transforming serious illness, has launched its innovative supportive care solution in partnership with Valtruis, Blue Venture Fund, Mass General Brigham Ventures , and CareSource. This alliance brings a $60 million strategic investment to Tuesday Health, fueling its mission to redefine supportive care for patients and caregivers facing serious illnesses. "Leveraging clinical expertise, advanced data solutions, and cutting-edge technology, while partnering with Ohio's largest Medicaid plan, its largest hospice provider and the unmatched palliative care experience of Mass General, Tuesday Health is dedicated to tackling one of healthcare's biggest challenges-providing support and care in the right setting, at the right time, for those facing serious illness", said Jim Wieland, CEO of Tuesday Health.Editor's Note: What is the difference between supportive care and palliative care? Click here for a description from ASCO, the American Society of Clinical Oncology. 

‘Great Resignation’ becomes ‘Great Reshuffle’ of American jobsMcKnight's Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 5/16/24After a record number of workers left their jobs in the early part of the decade in what was known as the “Great Resignation,” the American workforce has entered a period now dubbed the “Great Reshuffle,” according to the World Economic Forum. “While quit rates remain high, hiring rates continue to outpace them as many workers have been transitioning to other jobs in search of an improved work-life balance and flexibility, increased compensation, or a strong company culture,” the US Chamber of Commerce reported.

[Honoring Nurses Week] Too many nurses are being assaulted. Some say they are being blamed for the attacks. Chief Healthcare Executive; by Ron Southwick; 5/9/24 With disturbing regularity, nurses in hospitals and other healthcare settings are being physically assaulted and verbally harassed. More than half of emergency nurses say they’ve been assaulted or threatened within the past 30 days, according to the Emergency Nurses Association. In a separate study, researchers found that healthcare workers faced at least one violent or aggressive incident for every 40 hours worked, according to findings published by The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. With the observance of National Nursing Week, the increased violence in healthcare can’t be ignored. Nursing leaders say the regular exposure to violence or threatening behavior is one factor adding to stress and burnout of nurses and, in some cases, spurring them to seek new jobs.

Big Bend Hospice, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Partner on transformative approach to transitional careBusiness Wire; 5/2/24 Big Bend Hospice (BBH) and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) announced a partnership today to improve patient navigation within the healthcare system. This collaboration aims to streamline transitions between hospitals, doctor's offices, rehabilitation centers, and home care. The signing of the Affiliation Agreement creates a governance structure that will develop a transformative approach to improving transitions of care in the Big Bend community. Transitions of care involve a patient's movement between healthcare settings, such as doctor's offices, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, long-term care, home health, hospice, etc. This partnership establishes a network of connected healthcare services, creating a seamless patient journey regardless of specific needs.