Literature Review

Default hospice consultation in comfort measures orders and hospice engagementJAMA Network Open; by L. Scott Sussman, John M. Henderson, Nancy Kim; 8/26Hospice improves end-of-life care quality yet remains underutilized, with persistent racial and ethnic access disparities. In this quality improvement study, embedding hospice consultation within CMO [comfort measures only] orders was associated with substantial and sustained increases in hospice engagement. Because hospice enrollment cannot occur without consultation, improving consult reliability represents a meaningful intervention. This project embedded hospice consideration directly into an existing clinical transition rather than relying on interruptive alerts or educational efforts alone. These findings contribute to evidence that EHR [electronic health record]-based behavioral nudges can guide clinicians in time-sensitive, high-stakes settings.

Healthcare doesn’t need forward deployed engineers. It needs forward deployed operators. HIT Consultant; by Frederik Mueller; 9/22/26 The forward deployed engineer model, embraced across enterprise technology, is built on a seductive assumption: that the gap between a technology’s potential and its adoption is primarily a technical gap. A missing integration. A misconfigured workflow. A feature not yet built. Fix the code, and the organization will follow. In most industries, that assumption is partially right. In healthcare, it is almost entirely wrong. In part, healthcare organizations contribute to the problem because most evaluate technology vendors the same flawed way. They audit the roadmap, assess the integrations, and negotiate the contract. They rarely ask enough how the vendor will be embedded in their operations after go-live, and what discipline that ongoing partnership requires. 

Interoperability’s blind spot: What happens to data after systems retire? HealthData Management; by Shawn Fichter; 9/18/26 As healthcare advances FHIR-based exchange and replaces aging applications, interoperability strategies must account for the historical records left behind—ensuring legacy data remains accessible, secure, governed and usable long after its original system leaves production. ...

Ennoble Care expands national reach by entering five new communities NewsNet, Arlington, VA; by PR Newswire; 9/17/26 Ennoble Care, a leading home-based primary, palliative, and hospice care provider, today announced its expansion into five new communities in Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, and Texas to deliver more care for medically frail and homebound patients. ... At the heart of it, Ennoble Care’s model allows seniors to age at home. Instead of medically frail patients spending their final years cycling in and out of hospitals, they can remain in the comfort of their homes and receive high-touch primary, palliative, and hospice care ... That continuity of care is only possible because of Ennoble Care’s proprietary electronic health records system, ...

Frazier Healthcare Partners completes acquisition of MatrixCare, appoints Jonathan Lujan as Chief Executive Officer WKOW-27 ABC, Madison, WI; Press Release via Business Wire; 9/1/26 Frazier Healthcare Partners ("Frazier"), a private equity firm focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, today announced the closing of its acquisition of MatrixCare (the "Company") from Resmed (NYSE & ASX: RMD). MatrixCare is a leading provider of cloud-based electronic health record (“EHR”) and revenue cycle management (“RCM”) solutions purpose-built for out-of-hospital care settings, including skilled nursing, senior living, home health, hospice, and life plan communities. ... Concurrent with closing, Frazier Executive in Residence Jonathan Lujan has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of MatrixCare. Jonathan brings deep experience across healthcare services and technology, with a track record of operational leadership, commercial transformation, and value creation.Editor's Note: See our recent post, MatrixCare publishes their list of 2026 CAHPS Honors Elite and Honors Award winners.

The new health system CEO job description, per 23 leaders Becker's Hospital Review; by Alan Condon, Kelly Gooch, and Kristin Kuchno; 8/20/26 The health system CEO job description is getting longer, and increasingly filled with responsibilities that barely registered five years ago. Today’s CEOs are expected to steer AI strategy, prepare for cyberattacks, shape culture, advocate in statehouses and on Capitol Hill, protect employees from workplace violence, address affordability and serve as trusted voices in their communities. That shift is playing out at some of the nation’s largest and most prominent health systems. 

The benefits and hidden costs of AI scribesHealthcare Brew; by Maia Anderson; 8/5/26Ambient AI scribes have typically been marketed as tools to reduce providers’ administrative burden by speeding up the clinical documentation process. They may also be useful in boosting health system revenues. Multiple studies show that scribe usage is leading to more billing codes being included in clinical notes, which in turn leads to higher reimbursement from insurers and higher revenues for hospitals. That may be a slight boon for health systems, experts said. But, they cautioned that it could also increase overall medical costs and insurance premiums, particularly when scribes are used in inpatient settings, which involve billing for much higher-cost services. Whether they also result in improvements in care is unclear.

Hospice care in the era of AI: hospices' views on data-driven tools to support live discharge decisionsJournal of the American Geriatrics Society; by Elizabeth A. Luth, Caitlin Brennan, Susan Hurley, Kira G. Sheldon, Yongkang Zhang; 8/3/26 Live discharge occurs for 20% of hospice enrollees, resulting in loss of support and disruptive care transitions, with higher risk for patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Little is understood about how data-driven clinical decision support tools (e.g., predictive algorithms) might support decision making regarding live discharge. ... This paper advances our understanding of multilevel factors hospices face in supporting patients discharged alive. It establishes hospices' interest in adopting data-driven tools to support live discharge and outlines criteria for successful development and implementation of these tools.

Leveraging technology in hospice sales and marketing Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 7/14/26 Technology is becoming increasingly important in hospice sales and marketing, but it can’t replace the human touch, according to provider leaders. One of the most proliferating sets of technologies sweeping the hospice space and many other industries right now is artificial intelligence (AI). While AI can be a tool to generate referral growth and streamline operations, building person-to-person relationships is more important, Craig Dresang, CEO of the nonprofit hospice provider YoloCares, said during a Hospice News webinar.  “Nothing will replace relationship management person to person. AI is a tool to be used. We use AI here in a number of ways,” Dresang told Hospice News. “There are a number of ways that AI can be used as a tool, but nothing will replace good old-fashioned people skills and relationship management skills.”

Lessons from 70 triathlons about why enterprise software projects fail Forbes; by Alan Rencher for Forbes Technology Council; 7/13/26 ​In 2004, I weighed 280 pounds. ... I am not proud of how I got there. But I am genuinely grateful for what getting out of it taught me, not just about endurance training, but about the thing I have spent my career trying to get right: why enterprise software almost always fails. I have now completed 70-plus triathlons. I also have a long list of painful firsthand experiences with enterprise software that launched expensively and landed quietly in a drawer. Building it, selling it, buying it, implementing it. I have been on every side of that table. The failure modes are the same. And the reason is not what most people think.​ ...

As AI listens to patients, physicians face new questions Medscape; by Michael Waldholz; 6/22/26 Like much of modern life, medicine is rapidly being reshaped by AI. The fastest-growing — and potentially most consequential — application in healthcare is a technology known as “ambient intelligence.” ... According to a new report from the Peterson Health Technology’s AI Taskforce, “There is no technology in recent memory that has been adopted more enthusiastically by clinicians or has scaled up so uncharacteristically fast, absent a regulatory mandate.” But with the enthusiasm comes concern. The AI scribe field is unregulated, so an application’s accuracy isn’t being independently monitored. In one recent study, researchers reported scribes produced inaccuracies that the authors say will require “vigilance.” 

HMN 2026: How AI in nursing raises questions about safety, ethics, and human care Health Medicine Network; by University of Pennsylvania, George Demiris et al; 6/26/26 As artificial intelligence systems spread through hospitals and clinics, a growing debate is emerging over whether the technology will ultimately strengthen nursing care—or gradually replace parts of it. That tension is at the center of a new University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing report, “Artificial Intelligence and Nursing Science: Opportunities, Challenges, Implications, and Guidelines,” published in Nursing Outlook. The paper warns that while AI could reduce paperwork and improve patient monitoring, it also raises concerns about bias, accountability, patient privacy and whether hospitals may view some nursing functions as replaceable.

West Coast fraud and AI: DOJ expands healthcare fraud enforcement into technology-driven markets JDSupra | Proskauer Health Care Law Brief; by Devin Cohen, Lara Feder, Matthew Westbrook; 6/3/26 On April 30, 2026, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced the creation of the West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force, a coordinated enforcement initiative focused on healthcare fraud in Arizona, Nevada, and Northern California. ... DOJ’s announcement also reflects the government’s growing focus on technology-enabled healthcare fraud risks. ... In its announcement, DOJ specifically highlights recent prosecutions involving digital health executives and healthcare technology-related fraud schemes in Northern California and Arizona.