Literature Review

Fairhope Hospice & Palliative Care, Inc. buys building to expand services Perry County Tribune; 4/17/24 FairhopeHospice & Palliative Care, Inc. [Lancaster, OH] announced Monday that it has purchased a building at 1319 E. Main St., Lancaster. The building will allow Fairhope to expand its palliative care services by opening a clinic specifically designed for palliative patients. ... Currently, Fairhope serves 300 palliative care patients.

Valley Health provider’s memory lives on with help of donor generosity Valley Helath Foundations, 4/9/24 On March 27, a new Intensivist Workroom was dedicated in Winchester Medical Center’s Critical Care unit in memory of Mark Clinton, MD, who passed away in 2018 from cancer. Dr. Clinton’s specialty was palliative care, including the care of the caregiver. He was a superb clinician, a compassionate provider and a steadfast partner. He worked for Valley Intensivists for five years before his death. Since his passing, nearly $30,000 has been donated in his memory. 

Palliative care could be a game changer for public health Harvard Public Health, by Meredith Lidard Kleeman; 4/4/24California and Hawaii are pioneering ways to expand access. ... California is one of the first states in the country to require insurance companies that administer Medicaid benefits to fully cover palliative care services for eligible residents. ... Palliative care is poised to be a game changer for public health. Nearly 50 percent of states now include palliative care services for eligible Medicaid recipients, according to C-TAC. And in California and Hawaii, two paths are being forged toward wider palliative care access. ... 

Dana-Farber’s new push to integrate palliative, behavioral services in cancer careHospice News, by Audrie Martin; 4/2/24Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has launched the Neuro-Inclusive Oncology Care and Empowerment Program, a psychosocial oncology initiative focused on adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). ... Patients with disabilities are largely underserved, but they represent a growing need as well as an untapped market for providers. More palliative care and hospice companies are developing programs to meet the specific concerns of these patients to improve access to care.

2024 budget and paylines update: [$12.5 million for palliative care research]National Institute on Aging, by Kenneth Santora; 3/28/24The recently signed into law H.R. 2882, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024,  includes full-year NIH funding through Sept. 30, 2024. ... The budget designates a $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) research, including $90 million for NIA and $10 million for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; as well as $12.5 million for palliative care research. 

How home-based care providers are leveraging palliative care in hospital partnerships Home Health Care News, by Patrick Filbin; 3/26/24 Oftentimes, talks between home health providers and their many referral partners are an exercise in education. For providers offering palliative care, that education usually starts at a 101-level. Part of that conversation with hospital and health system partners includes convincing case managers that patients will be better suited at home. Editor's Note: Features Choice Health at Home CEO David Jackson; Kaiser Permanente Senior Director of Care Hospice and Palliative Care Gina Andres

Palliative care in the older adult with cancer and the role of the geriatrician: a narrative review Annals of Palliative Medicine, by Bibban Bant Deol, Lisa Binns-Emerick, MOhammad Kang, Pragnesh Patel; 3/15/24 online ahead of print Conclusions: Embedding primary care geriatrics in the palliative care arena helps to provide more access to this care. This integration helps providers address basic symptom management, advance care planning and work with individuals on goals of care to assure the care being provided is congruent individual's priorities. Older adults respond to symptoms different than their younger counterparts. Management of these symptoms has to be addressed in a manner commiserate with their age.

The benefits of integrating palliative care into home-based care programs Home Health Care News, by Patrick Filbin; 3/18/24 Navigating new service lines can be daunting, especially when integrating palliative care into existing service lines. Yet, as some providers can attest, embracing change can also yield significant benefits. ... “It’s easier to remain in your own silo,” Tiffany Hughes, COO PalliCare Inc., said at the Hospice News/Palliative Care News Palliative Care Conference in Tampa, Florida. “I saw that [mindset] coming from hospice where it’s the perfect model of care because you control everything. When you start adding in different elements and add more hands into the pot, it gets more complicated.” Providers who are integrating more models of care into their operations are showing that – in general – the juice is worth the squeeze.

Palliative Care as ‘Personalized Medicine’Hospice News, by Jim Parker; 3/18/24The term “personalized medicine” is often used to describe health needs based on a patient’s genetics. However, more stakeholders are applying the term to palliative care. Personalized medicine is a step away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to health care. The model uses information gathered from a patient’s genome to plan for care, treatment and services, and to some extent, predict a likely health trajectory, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Palliative Care integration on the rise Hospice News, by Jim Parker; 3/13/24A range of medical specialties are incorporating palliative care principles into their care models. The trend points to ways that patients might receive palliative services through new avenues, such as geriatrics, primary care or home health care. 

Telehealth preferences among patients with advanced cancer in the post COVID-19 vaccine eraJournal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Kawoswi K Shih, MD; Adrienne B Arechiga; Xi Chen PhD; Diana L. Urbauer, MS; Aline Rozman De Moraes, MD; Ashley J Rodriquez; Lisa Thomas; Penny A Stanton; Eduardo Bruera, MD; and David Hui MD; 3/10/24 Background: Few studies have examined patient preferences for telehealth in palliative care after the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. We examined patient preferences for video versus in-person visits and factors contributing to preferences in the post-vaccine era. Conclusion: Patients expressed strong preference for video over in-person visits in the outpatient palliative care setting.

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue opens new Palliative Care Serenity Unit for patients and families NYC Health+Hospitals Press Release; 3/7/24 NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue today announced the opening of a new Palliative Care Serenity Unit for patients and families. ... “We created the Serenity Unit because we noted an increasing number of patients either spending their dying days at the hospital or in need of extra support and symptom management expertise that palliative care provides,” said Susan E. Cohen, MD, director of the Palliative Care Program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. “We want to ensure that patients who are here in their final days are being treated with dignity and expertise.”Editor's Note: NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is the oldest hospital in America, tracing their roots back to 1736 when a six-bed infirmary opened on the second floor of the New York City Almshouse.

Editorial: Illness trajectories in the age of big data The BMJ; by Peter Tanuseputro, Colleen Webber, and James Downar; 3/1/24For decades, healthcare providers have understood that patients follow typical trajectories of health decline as they approach the end of life, and they have used this understanding to help patients and families anticipate the dying process. Traditional trajectories focus on function or overall health status and include sudden death, terminal illness ..., organ failure ..., and frailty ... Two Education articles in the BMJ add novel dimensions to our understanding of health decline. Murray et al explain how declines in function do not always mirror declines in social, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. They also add a new trajectory, multimorbidity, to describe a person with conditions from multiple trajectories (such as heart disease from organ failure and cognitive impairment from frailty).