Literature Review

UnitedHealth Group's Optum to lay off 160 employees Modern Healthcare; by Hayley Desilva; 9/19/24 UnitedHealth Group's Optum filed plans to lay off 160 employees at one of its locations in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The majority of the cuts will occur on Dec. 11, with a single worker laid off Jan. 22, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed with the state of New Jersey this month. ... The provider, pharmacy and technology services business said in the filing the planned layoffs are due to a need for "alignment of capabilities and services to meet the evolving needs of our business and those we serve." The employees will be eligible for severance pay and continue to receive their regular wages until their termination date.

Nurse workplace violence reporting increased 1,080% with new tool Becker's Clinical Leadership; by Mariah Taylor; 9/19/24 Making it easier to report workplace violence with quick-scan codes on walls and badges increased reporting by 1,080% in two months, according to a new study. ... When surveyed, nurses said they did not report workplace violence incidents for the following reasons: "nothing will change" (24%), "event was not severe enough" (21%), "part of the job" (15%), "electronic reporting system is time-consuming/complicated" (9%), "lack of time" (6%), "don’t know how" (3%) and "lack of leadership support" (3%). In addition, more than half of respondents said they disclosed the event to the charge nurse when they did not formally report it.  To overcome these barriers, researchers created a tool that allows nurses to scan a quick-response code with their phones. Codes were located on wall flyers and name badge stickers. Two months after implementation, the tool recorded 94 quick response code scans and 59 workplace violence reports, a 1,080% increase in violence reports compared to the two previous months.

HHS awards $100M to address workforce shortages Becker's Hospital Review; by Kristin Kuchno; 9/18/24 The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of HHS, announced it will award $100 million to organizations including medical schools and state health departments to address healthcare workforce shortages, according to a Sept. 17 news release from HHS. With a shortage of 100,000 healthcare workers expected nationwide by 2028, some health systems have focused on nurse faculty shortages, such as New Bedford, Mass.-based Southcoast Health. ... 

[Honoring Hispanic Heritage Month] Artists on death, grief, and cancer Burnaway; by Carolina Ana Drake; 9/17/24... Living in Miami and raising my toddler in this city, I’ve discovered artists who similarly lost a parent to cancer. Many, like me, happen to be the children of immigrants. Their works exemplify challenging, at times experimental, art that doesn’t fit the glitzy, market-driven Miami narrative. Through conversations and email exchanges, I learned more about how these artists transformed the darkness and grief of that period into something beautiful that is worth sharing with others. [Click on the title's link to see photos from the following exhibits.]

The patient care experience on full display Modern Healthcare; by Mary Ellen Podmolik; 9/13/24 Art exhibits can promote a visceral reaction. The one that just opened along a hallway of windows on Thomas Jefferson University’s health sciences campus certainly does just that. The installation includes five hospital beds, life-sized mannequins inside large pill bottles, personal possessions and deeply personal quotes from five unnamed people who’ve gone through life-threatening trauma — a miscarriage, a pulmonary embolism, a wait for a kidney transplant, a case of undiagnosed paralysis and cancer. The Philadelphia artist behind the exhibit, Pepón Osorio, is the cancer patient. “Convalescence” is a complex and compelling exhibit of patient pain, reliance on drugs and inequitable care — part of the patient experience that can get lost in the daily tussle between providers and payers. “It is a critique of the healthcare system,” Megan Voeller, director of health humanities at the university, told me.

Simon Boas’ ‘inspirational’ book A Beginner’s Guide to Dying is published posthumously Jersey Evening Post; by Rod McLoughlin; 9/13/24 Friends and family of the late Simon Boas gathered ... to celebrate the posthumous publication of his book, A Beginner’s Guide to Dying. The former Jersey Overseas Aid chief executive – who died from throat cancer on 15 July at the age of 47 – spent his last months developing into a book ideas first explored in articles for the Jersey Evening Post. Described by the Daily Mail as “an inspirational paean to the joy of life”, Mr Boas’ words reached a huge audience after they were reprinted in the national press and broadcast on the BBC’s Today programme. A proportion of the proceeds are being donated to the African Palliative Care Association and the International Children’s Palliative Care Network. Mr Boas’ inspiring writings in the face of his terminal diagnosis saw him awarded the Bailiff’s Silver Medal in May. Shortly before his death, he also received a personal letter from the King and Queen ahead of their visit to Jersey.

Central Coast lavender farm helping cancer and hospice patients in Monterey County KSBW-8 News, Monterey County, CA; by Zoe Hunt; 9/9/24  Lavender Creek Co. has turned its family farm into a source of comfort for cancer and hospice patients in Monterey County. Ryan and Myriah Hopkins are the husband-and-wife duo behind the lavender farm on Carmel Valley Road. They’re using their home-grown lavender to donate products like hand towels and eye pillows designed to soothe and relax, a much-needed comfort for hospital patients. ... "We are donating our lavender that [the Monterey Quilters Guild sews]into eye pillows and then donate it to our hospital or nonprofits," Hopkins said. "Then those go to patients undergoing cancer treatment and hospice care."

Dogs helping hospice patients WFMY News 2 - YouTube; Mountain Valley Hospice, Dobson, NC; 9/3/24 Mountain Valley Hospice in Surrey County has been using therapy dogs and with some really great results, the dogs provided in boost at a time when families and their loved ones are going through extremely tough times patients. If they're having a hard day and all they're seeing is these clinical teams coming in and doing things to them and then they just see a pet and they're missing their pet or they had pets in the past and they can just go to the bedside. If they're big dogs they can pet them, or if they're small dogs they can put a towel over on top of them and then put the little pet on top of the bed and they can pet it and just lay there.

Death Cafe' creates safe space to talk about death, dying and beyond in Missoula KPAX-8 Missoula & Western Montana; by Jill Valley; 9/5/24 Sometimes, the most important conversations we can have involve topics we don’t really want to talk about — such as money, politics, or death. We recently went to have coffee with a group of people who are talking about some of life’s scariest issues. It was the last Thursday in August and about a dozen people were enjoying coffee and talking about death. This is Death Café. Maurika Moore — the CEO and owner of Hestia Advantage, a locally-owned hospice and palliative care provider — told MTN, “I think it’s something we all want to talk about but don’t often get to." The Death Café was founded decades ago. Now, there are meetings worldwide to create a safe space to talk about all aspects of death and dying. Its objective is "to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their (finite) lives."

‘His Three Daughters’: A sister act that’s among the year’s best movies The Washington Post - Arts & Entertainment; by Ty Burr; 9/5/24 Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne give career-peak performances in Azazel Jacobs's relatable family drama. ... “His Three Daughters” is in all its simplicity and complexity the story of how these women get along over the course of their dad’s final week. Spoiler alert: They don’t. If that sounds like a downer, the movie’s kept from terminal morbidity by writer-director Jacobs’s uncanny ear for dialogue and by the empathy of the three central performances. There’s humor here, gallows and otherwise. But there’s also an overflowing heartful of feeling, approached from three different angles by three different people who all happen to love the same parent. Other people come and go: a hospice worker (Rudy Galvan) whose smooth bromides eventually grate on the sisters’ nerves and ours; a night nurse (Jasmine Bracey) with patience and kindness and a full, unseen life outside the apartment; ... In its final moments, the movie takes a risk — a huge gamble, really — that for my money pays off on any number of levels, and in doing so finally confirms its writer-director’s talent. ... Available Sept. 20 on Netflix. [Netflix trailor and reminder available now.]

A wave of change is coming for healthcare benefits — are hospitals ready? Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Jakob Emerson; 9/3/24Surveys of employers are making one thing clear: Healthcare costs are rising faster than they did before the pandemic, and those costs are being driven by inflation, the increasing use of weight loss medications, and higher overall medical expenses.  ... As financial pressures mount, many employers are exploring or expanding alternative payment and coverage models, a trend that could significantly alter hospital's revenue streams. ...  The average cost of employer-sponsored coverage is expected to jump 9% from 2024 to 2025, according to estimates from Aon published in August. Healthcare costs per employee are projected to surpass $16,000 per employee in 2025, driven by rising employment levels, inflation and rising pharmaceutical costs. In 2024, employers budgeted an average of $14,823 per employee for healthcare costs. These costs have risen by more than 20% over the past five years and by 43% over the past decade.

How to get people to do what you want and still like you in 3 steps, from a leadership expert CNBS - Make It - Leadership; by Tom Huddleston, Jr.; 9/2/24 One of the biggest challenges for any leader is figuring out how to hold people accountable for their mistakes without creating bad blood. In those situations, playing the blame game is always a losing strategy, according to leadership expert and bestselling author Michael Timms. The secret to calling out poor performance while maintaining a positive relationship with employees is to own up to your own mistakes first so you can inspire others to do the same, Timms said in a TED Talk in January. It’s a strategy called “modeling accountability.” Timms ... noted that he and other leaders often fall into the same trap: “blaming other people for a problem without considering my part in it.” ″[This is] something I teach management teams: You can’t inspire accountability in others until you model it yourself,” he said. 

In hospice, Lehigh Valley man doesn’t let terminal cancer stop him from becoming ordained[PA] The Morning Call; by Anthony Salamone; 9/1/24Diocese of Allentown Bishop Alfred A. Schlert places his hands on Von George's hands during an ordination service Aug. 10 at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena in Allentown for George to become a lay permanent deacon. George, of South Whitehall Township, became a deacon despite learning about one year ago that he has pancreatic cancer.Publisher's note: Accessing full article may require subscription.