Literature Review

Nursing homes are left in the dark as more utilities cut power to prevent wildfires News-Medical.net; by KFF Health News; 6/10/24 When powerful wind gusts created threatening wildfire conditions one day near Boulder, Colorado, the state's largest utility cut power to 52,000 homes and businesses — including Frasier, an assisted living and skilled nursing facility. It was the first time Xcel Energy preemptively switched off electricity in Colorado as a wildfire prevention tool, according to a company official. The practice, also known as public safety power shut-offs, has taken root in California and is spreading elsewhere as a way to keep downed and damaged power lines from sparking blazes and fueling the West's more frequent and intense wildfires. 

Navigating Aging: New help for dealing with aggression in people with dementia Northern Kentucky Tribune; by Judith Graham, KFF Health News; 6/9/24Caring for older adults with dementia is stressful, especially when they become physically or verbally aggressive, wander away from home, develop paranoia or hallucinations, engage in inappropriate or repetitive behaviors, or refuse to let caregivers help them. Upward of 95% of patients experience these neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, which tend to fluctuate over time and vary in intensity. They’re the primary reasons people with dementia end up in assisted living facilities or nursing homes. At some point, families and friends trying to help at home simply can’t manage. “When people think about dementia, they usually think about forgetfulness and memory impairment,” said Mary Blazek, director of the geriatric psychiatry clinic at the University of Michigan. “But it’s behavioral and psychological disturbances that are most disruptive to patients’ and caregivers’ lives.”

Record numbers of nursing homes are shutting down in New EnglandBoston.com; by Beth Treffeisen; 5/30/24[Personal story about multiple moves, due to shutdowns:] ... Her dad had to spend his entire life savings on care, about $400,000. “And now he’s being treated like this,” Jones said. “He gets moved around, shuffled around like an object.” The nursing home closures affect not only the patients, like Jones’s father, but also the larger health care system and local communities they serve. Experts in the field say the loss of long-term care facility beds has led to backups in emergency rooms, and family members are leaving the workforce to care for the elderly or sick. ... According to a Boston Federal Reserve report, there were 150 less nursing facilities in New England at the end of fiscal year 2023 than there were at the beginning of 2010, a 15 percent decrease.

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:

Hospital CEOs ask patients to receive care at home Becker's Hospital Review; by Madeline Ashley; 5/14/24 Hospital executives are making the push to move more care, specifically recovery rooms and exams, out of the hospital and into patient homes, to potentially save money and improve finances as the country continues to move out of the pandemic, Politico reported May 11. And Congress is supporting these efforts by introducing legislation that would expand at-home care and to allow Medicare to continue funding telehealth. Here are five findings from the report: ... [Click on the title's link to read more.]

Caring for the Caregiver: A Guide for Home Care Providers Forbes; by Joan Ekobena; 5/8/24This article proposes that nurturing the psychological and physical well-being of caregivers [employees] is essential. It’s not just a matter of ethical responsibility but a fundamental factor for maintaining quality care, promoting continuity of care and boosting employee retention. This can create a positive ripple effect, which can not only increase customer satisfaction but also boost business revenue. ... A recent decision by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) underscores the increasing awareness of the need to invest in caregiver wellness. Guides are listed as "Strategies for Supporting Caregiver Wellness and Mindset": ... [Note: "Caregiver" denotes employees who provide home care, not the family "caregiver" in the home.] 

Palliative patients can die peacefully at home with paramedic support, claims proposed frameworkRiotack - Australia; by James Day; 5/6/24A proposed national framework suggests paramedics could help ease pressure on emergency departments by supporting palliative care patients who wish to die at home. Published in the leading international peer reviewed journal Palliative Medicine, the framework seeks to embed palliative care into paramedics’ core business and reduce needless transports to hospital. ... Lead author and trained paramedic Dr. Madeleine Juhrmann developed the framework in consultation with paramedics, palliative care doctors, GPs, carers with lived experience and others. The expert group – representing six countries and all the states of Australia – agreed on the framework’s 32 service changes to standardise best practice for paramedics delivering palliative care in community-based settings.Pair this with a USA article in today's newsletter, "Stranded in the ER, seniors await hospital care and suffer avoidable harm." 

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.

E-book: "Combating loneliness in senior living residents: A call to action"McKnights Senior Living; 4/24/24Discover in [this] e-book:

$1 billion class action settlement will trigger transition of 2,400 nursing home residents to other settingsMcKnights Senior LIving, by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 4/19/24The $1 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit has the potential to see 2,400 Massachusetts nursing home residents move into other residential and community settings in the next decade. The options include assisted living communities, although state senior living experts say that it’s unlikely many of those transitions will be to assisted living. The state agreed to settle the suit, initially filed in 2022 by six disabled nursing homes residents who argued that a lack of state resources “trapped” them in nursing homes despite their wishes to return to community-based care settings.

'Speak Up & Speak Out,' LeadingAge members head to the Hill on Lobby Day 2024 HomeCare; 4/18/24 Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) joined Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, and hundreds of the association’s nonprofit and mission-driven members for the kick-off of annual Lobby Day activities. More than 225 LeadingAge members, who serve older adults and families nationwide in a range of care settings and community types, ... headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, April 17 ...  [Leading Age members] visited their elected officials in the House and Senate to discuss critical aging services issues to ensure older adults and families can access the care and services they need to age with dignity, including [but not limited to]: 

New York’s home health, personal care workforce achieves fastest growth in nation: BLS McKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy; 4/10/24 New York is adding home health and personal care jobs faster than any other state, growing its supply of such workers by 12% between May 2022 and May 2023, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state added roughly 62,000 home health and personal care aides during that time period, which was more than double that of any other state and accounted for over one third of nationwide home care aide employment growth, according to an analysis by the Empire Center, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank based in New York. 

Healthcare on the brink: navigating the challenges of an aging society in the United States  npj Aging, by Charles H. Jones and Mikael Dolsten; 4/6/24 The US healthcare system is at a crossroads. With an aging population requiring more care and a strained system facing workforce shortages, capacity issues, and fragmentation, innovative solutions and policy reforms are needed. ... Through a comprehensive analysis of the impact of an aging society, this work highlights the urgency of addressing this issue and the importance of restructuring the healthcare system to be more efficient, equitable, and responsive.