Literature Review

16 states where virus activity remains high: 5 updates Becker's Clinical Leadership; by Alexandra Murphy; 1/27/25 The CDC is reporting high levels of respiratory virus activity across the U.S. While respiratory syncytial virus levels are beginning to peak in many areas of the country, flu-related emergency department visits are at very high levels and are still rising, according to the latest data. Thirteen states are experiencing "high" respiratory virus activity: Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Hawaii and Washington, D.C. Three states are experiencing "very high" levels: New Hampshire, New Jersey and Wisconsin. [Click here for the CDC's "Respiratory Virus Activity Levels," with more detailed data and maps for all 50 states.]

Behind the scenes: Caring for the caregivers Harvard Magazine; by Lydialyel Gibson; 1/30/25 When I was in seventh grade, my best friend’s father was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. He was in his late 50s. ... My sharpest memories from that time are of my friend’s shock and grief as her father deteriorated, and of her mother’s incredible stamina. ... That was more than 30 years ago. ... [When] I heard about the work of Christine Ritchie, a geriatrician and palliative care physician who studies the caregiver experience, I knew I wanted to talk to her. Ritchie directs the Dementia Care Collaborative at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and teaches at Harvard Medical School, and has been doing this research for decades. ... The caregivers are the heart of this story. Across the country there are more than 11 million other people like them, who continue to fill these difficult, precious, necessary roles. [Click on the title's link to continue reading this important article.]

How a St. Louisan helps her community navigate death by filling out advance directives NPR - St. Louis on the Air; by Jada Jones; 1/28/25 When Vivial Lopez’s grandmother was on life support, her family was faced with many difficult decisions. Her grandmother did not have an advance directive, so her family did not know her final wishes. The experience of navigating her grandmother’s end-of-life plan without any direction led Lopez to advocate for families to prepare advance directives - especially those in Black and brown communities. Approximately only on ein three adults complete an advance directive for end-of-life care. Lopez works with the Gateway End-of-Life Coalition to empower members of the St. Louis community to navigate death through quality end-of-life care.  Editor's note: Click here for AARP - Find Advance Directives Forms by State, also available in Spanish.

Palliative care may improve quality of life in esophageal cancer Cure; by Tim Cortese; 1/27/25 Palliative care consultations helped patients with esophageal cancer at end-of-life experience better quality of life and less financial strain by reducing the need for intensive interventions, according to a poster presented at the 2025 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The mean length of hospital stay was 7.5 days (plus or minus 11.3 days) for patients who received palliative care and 8.9 days (plus or minus 14.9) for those who didn’t; and total charges were $97,879 (plus or minus $195,868) and $146,128 (plus or minus $321,830), respectively. Patients who received palliative care consultation had a Charlson Comorbidity Index of 9.4 (plus or minus 3.3) versus 9.1 (plus or minus 3.5) for patients who did not.

Concurrent Care Collaborative a safety net for pediatric patients Noozhawk, Santa Barbara, CA; by Easter Moorman; 1/26/25 Partners for Kids has initiated Santa Barbara County’s first Pediatric Concurrent Care Collaborative designed to offer comprehensive, compassionate, and coordinated care to seriously ill children from birth to 21 years of age. Spearheaded by Kieran Shah, president/CEO of VNA Health, and Rebecca Simonitsch, Quality Initiatives Program manager for Cottage Health, nine local organizations have joined to create a safety net for pediatric patients and their families to help them receive care close to home. The groups are: CenCal Health, Central Coast Home Health & Hospice, Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Dignity Health, Hearts Aligned, Herencia Indígena, Hospice of Santa Barbara, Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, and VNA Health. 

Children’s book written by Manheim Township mother finally published 3 years after she died of cancer [video] LNP Lancaster Online, Lancaster, PA; by John Walk; 1/27/25 As she battled a rare sarcoma cancer over the last two years of her life, Manheim Township resident Ginny McCreary struggled to find a children’s book she could read to her two young daughters to help them better understand what she was going through. So McCreary wrote the book herself, sometimes on a smartphone while laying in bed late at night, ... McCreary died Aug. 15, 2021. She was 34. She left behind a self-published manuscript of the children’s book that sat idle for about two years but was not forgotten. ... The book has also made its way inside four Hospice & Community Care locations in Lancaster as well as Penn Medicine’s Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute in East Hempfield Township. [Video with Ginny's mother] "I'd love to get it to some cancer centers and hospice centers ..." [Click on the title's link for more information.]

The HOPE Assessment Tool Series: Understanding the Required Timed VisitsCHAP blog; by Jennifer Kennedy; 1/25It’s January 2025, and we are counting down to the implementation of the HOPE Assessment Tool on October 1, 2025. That date may seem far away, but there is much preparation you need to do in the coming months for a seamless launch on the “go-date”. Your staff will need consistent education about the assessment tool content and their responsibility for the administration and completion of the timed visits. [Click the link above to read the entire story.]

Engaging the hospice community in end-of-life care in prisons (Part 2)ehospice; by Barry R. Ashpole; 1/21/25Part 1 offered a broad overview of the potential role community hospices can play to improve end-of-life care (EoLC) for a particularly vulnerable and underserved population. As has been widely acknowledged, prisons and correctional facilities are caught between the proverbial “rock and a hard place,” between issues of security and public safety and the civil rights of the prison inmates to healthcare comparable to what is available to the populace-at-large. Part 2 takes a closer look at specific initiatives by some community hospices to support prison inmates towards the end of life. Prior to conducting research for its 2020 report, ‘Dying Behind Bars: How can we better support people in prison at the end-of-life,’ Hospice UK had only anecdotal evidence of the important work that some hospices were engaged in to support prison inmates at the end of life. The scope of this support had not been established at a national level. After conducting a survey of hospice services across England, researchers found that 25 hospices – representing approximately 15% of hospices in the country – are indeed providing this care and support, working with 34 different prisons.Publisher's note: Also see: Engaging the hospice community in end-of-life care in prisons (Part 1) that was also discussed in Hospice News' Global challenges persist in bringing hospice care to incarcerated populations.

Transforming care: Spencer Health Solutions and Pharmerica partner to simplify medication management and improve lives The MarCom Journal, Morrisville, NC; by Leigh White, PharMerica and Daphne Earley, Spencer Health Solutions; 1/21/25In a move set to redefine how medication is managed, Spencer Health Solutions (SHS), a leader in innovative healthcare technology, and PharMerica, one of the nation’s largest and most trusted long-term care pharmacy services provider, are joining forces. This transformative partnership aims to make managing medications easier and more reliable for individuals with complex medication needs, senior living communities, and payers nationwide. ... Spencer Health Solutions (SHS) is dedicated to transforming medication management through innovative healthcare technology. ... PharMerica ... serves the long-term care, senior living, hospital, home infusion, hospice, behavioral, specialty and oncology pharmacy markets. 

Justice Department sues Walgreens over alleged part in opioid crisis Becker's Hospital Review; by Madeline Ashley; 1/17/25 The Justice Department on Jan. 16 filed a civil complaint against Walgreens Boots Alliance and its subsidiaries alleging unlawful dispensation of millions of prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, also alleges that Walgreens sought reimbursements from federal health programs in violation of the False Claims Act, according to a Jan. 17 news release. The Justice Department alleges that Walgreens knowingly filled millions of invalid controlled substance prescriptions since August 2012, including excessive opioid quantities, early refills and a "dangerous and abused combination of drugs" ... The complaint suggests pharmacists at Walgreens filled the prescriptions "despite clear red flags" indicating the prescriptions were likely unlawful, ignoring other internal data and evidence from pharmacists about dispensing unlawful prescriptions. 

‘No One Dies Alone': How KMOX's Dave Glover turned personal loss into a mission of hope NBC 5, St. Louis, MO; by Mike Bush; 1/19/25 For 25 years, Dave Glover's voice has been a familiar presence on KMOX radio, but it was a personal tragedy that led him to his most meaningful role yet – as a volunteer bringing comfort to those in their final hours. ... While spending countless hours at his mother's bedside, Glover discovered something remarkable – an organization called NODA (No One Dies Alone). When his family was exhausted from their bedside vigil, the nursing staff told them, "You need to go home. And we have this organization of volunteers, called NODA." Julie Strassman, manager of Support Services with Bethesda Hospice Care, explains NODA's mission: ...

Woman reveals terminally ill mom asked for just 'one thing' before passing Newsweek; by Jack Beresford; 1/17/25 A terminally ill woman asked for "one thing" from her adult daughter before she died: to let her be her mom one last time. ... "I had a torn meniscus in my knee that I had been putting off, hoping it would improve, but it was only getting worse," Johnson said.  ... [The mom] told her daughter: "I'm going downhill, and I know the end is coming, and if you don't hurry up and take care of this knee, then I'm gonna miss taking care of you in your recovery." ... "She didn't want me going through it without her," Johnson said. "She had already gone on hospice, and all treatments for her cancer had stopped. So, I called my orthopedic surgeon and told him I was ready to get it fixed. I was scheduled just a few days later." [Johnson's mom] cooked and cleaned despite being in a considerable amount of pain herself. She even slept in a chair by her daughter's bedside. That was her way of showing she cared.

Global challenges persist in bringing hospice care to incarcerated populationsHospice News; by Holly Vossel; 1/16/25Swelling incarcerated aging populations with unmet end-of-life care needs are straining prison systems worldwide. Recent research has uncovered some of the common strategies to address the issue that are being employed across the globe. More countries have adopted peer caregiving as a way to provide improved support for terminally ill incarcerated individuals, according to researcher Barry Ashpole. Hospice communities have increasingly forged collaborations to provide caregiving training programs in prison systems throughout the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Germany, among others, according to a recent report dubbed as End-of-Life Care in the Prison Environment. The report examined global trends around end-of-life care delivery among incarcerated populations.