Literature Review

Why pre-admission is hospice’s next operational advantage Hospice News; by Jack Silverstein; 5/29/26 When Dr. Darius Joshi named his San Jose, California-based hospice Redwood Hospice, the name had more significance than simply proximity to Redwood National and State Parks. [Rich metaphor of redwood trees for quality hospice care as related to referrals and admissions ...] ... Inside the rise of the pre-admission platform: three areas of improvement:

Bridging the gap: a hospitalist-designed, nurse-driven palliative care model in a community hospital The Hospitalist; by Natasha Rai Morris, MD, MHA, CHCQM, CRCR, CCDS and Jessica Staton, MSN, MBA, RN, CCM; 6/1/26 ... [The] number of clinicians trained in palliative care is insufficient to meet the increasing demand for goals-of-care and advance care planning discussions. ... To address this gap, a 90-day pilot program was designed and implemented by a hospitalist and registered nurse care manager. The purpose was straightforward: expand access to early goals-of-care conversations, advance care planning, and appropriate hospice referral without waiting for a fully staffed specialty palliative team. ... In short, this model produced measurable documentation gains, earlier advance-care planning, and culture change toward goal-concordant care without requiring a full dedicated palliative team on site.

Early palliative integration for heart failure Medscape; by Karel De Pourcq, PhD; 5/27/26 ... Chronic conditions such as heart failure often bring relentless symptoms, repeated hospital admissions, and deep emotional and social effects for patients and their families. Bringing a palliative perspective into care widens the focus beyond disease-directed treatments to include ongoing symptom relief, emotional support, and help for overburdened caregivers. It also promotes early, shared planning about treatment intensity — deciding when worsening episodes can be managed at home vs when hospitalization is needed — and clarifying care goals as the illness progresses.

[United Kingdom] Palliative care beds paused over lack of staffing BBC News, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom; by Laura Coffey; 5/28/26 Palliative care beds have been temporarily taken out of use for end-of-life patients due to an "unexpected shortfall in consultant cover", an NHS trust said. Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) said the six affected beds at Danetre Hospital in Daventry would instead be used for rehabilitation. ... In a statement, NHFT said: "A recruitment process is ongoing, and once the medical cover has been resolved, the beds will switch back to being palliative care beds. 

Proposed community-based palliative care model aims to expand access to care Hospice News; by Kevin Ryan; 5/22/26 The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) has teamed up with the Coalition to Transform Advance Care (C-TAC) to work on building a federal fee-for-service, community-based palliative care model that would provide broader access and earlier support for patients across the United States. Research has shown benefits for patients and families when they are able to receive palliative care early on, after the diagnosis of a serious illness. But many patients in the United States do not receive palliative care until they have reached a crisis point, Tom Koutsoumpas founder and CEO of NPHI told Palliative Care News. 

Geographic distance between perinatal and pediatric palliative care services and implications for practice standards American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Radion Svynarenko, PhD, Meaghann S. Weaver, MD, PhD, MPH, HEC-C, Ambria Williams, BA,Ashley Kiefer Autrey, MD, DonnaMaria E. Cortezzo, MD, Abigail B. Wilpers, PhD, Abagail D. Cohen, MA, HEC-C,  Lisa C. Lindley, PhD, RN, FPCN, FAAN; 5/14/26 Background: Practice standards recommend early integration of perinatal and pediatric palliative care (PC) with seamless transitions across settings. Little is known about the proximity between these services nationally. Results: 418 pediatric PC physicians and 296 perinatal PC programs were included. Five states (CA, TX, NY, FL, OH) had the highest concentrations of pediatric PC physicians. ... Median drive times to the nearest pediatric PC physician for programs lacking on-site expertise reached approximately 5 hours in NM and SD; 3 hours in ND and MT; and 2 hours in AL, CO, WV, and TN.

Hospice and students 'break taboos' in podcast BBC News, Staffordshire, United Kingdom; by Aida Fofana; 5/26/26 A university and hospice charity have collaborated to launch a podcast, aiming to break the taboo around death and dying by discussing grief and hospice care. Birmingham City University (BCU) students and St Giles Hospice in Staffordshire created the Dying to Tell You Something podcast, featuring guests including volunteers, fundraisers and the hospice's director of clinical services, Leon Ratcliffe.

Mass General Brigham claims 1,400 lives saved hoodline, Boston, MA; by Benjamin Cortez; 5/21/26 Mass General Brigham says a two year, systemwide push to standardize safety checks, expand hospice and roll out predictive analytics sharply cut inpatient deaths, tallying more than 1,400 lives saved in two years by the health system’s own math. Several front line physicians inside those hospitals are not buying it. They argue that shifts in hospice placement and clinical documentation, not overnight miracles in bedside care, probably explain much of the improvement. The result is a rare, very public tug of war between executives celebrating quality rankings and clinicians who say the numbers do not line up with what they see on the wards.

CMS clarifies telehealth policy during enrollment moratorium Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 5/21/26 Hospices will continue to be able to use telehealth for face-to-face recertifications during the hospice and home health enrollment moratorium, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS). ... The federal statute stipulates that telehealth recertifications are not permitted in regions that are under an enrollment moratorium. This has raised some questions about how hospices can use telehealth for the next six months. “Perhaps the most troubling unintended consequence of a nationwide moratorium is its apparent impact on telehealth …” a trio of state associations said in a joint statement. “In rural communities and congested urban areas alike, this imposes severe and unnecessary burdens on the most vulnerable patients at the most vulnerable moments of their lives.”

Mayo Clinic and Bayesian Health co-develop new AI-powered solution to expand palliative care access and improve patient outcomes PR Newswire, Rochester, MN and New York , NY; by Bayesian Health; 5/19/26Mayo Clinic and Bayesian Health today announced they have co-developed an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to identify hospitalized patients who may benefit from palliative care earlier in their stay. The solution is designed to support timely consultations, with the objective of improving goal-concordant care for patients with serious illness and reducing non-beneficial readmissions.

Palliative care intervention for patients with end-stage liver disease-A cluster randomized clinical trialJAMA Internal Medicine; by Manisha Verma, Victor Navarro, Andrzej Kosinski, Tamar Taddei, Richard Kalman, A. Sidney Barritt, Simona Jakab, Marina Serper, Eric Orman, Maya Balakrishnan, Mina Rakoski, Don Rockey, Kristel Hunt, Roniel Cabrera, Ayse Aytaman, Binu John, Gyorgy Baffy, Rohit Nathan, Elliot Tapper, Marina Roytman, Brendan McGuire, Nicholas Hoppmann, Christopher Woodrell, Marie Bakitas, Yang Yue, Bryce Reeve, Li Lin, Rebecca Tantala, Michael Volk; 4/26Palliative care improves quality of life (QoL) in advanced illnesses, but data in end-stage liver disease (ESLD) are limited. It is unknown whether palliative care delivered by hepatologists is effective when compared with palliative care specialists. This cluster trial found that palliative care delivered by trained hepatologists was comparable with palliative care delivered by palliative care specialists in improving QoL in patients with ESLD and was associated with greater improvement in patient satisfaction, demonstrating the effectiveness among enrolled patients.Assistant Editor's note: That's the beauty of palliative care. It can be layered upon many other specialties and sub-specialties and utilized by a variety of health care disciplines. The science of palliative care, the skill and knowledge base involved, is adaptable and valuable for almost anyone working in direct patient care in many different health care settings.