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Welcome to Hospice & Palliative Care Today, a daily email summarizing numerous topics essential for understanding the current landscape of serious illness and end-of-life care. Recent TCN Talks podcasts / videos reviewing Hospice & Palliative Care Today monthly content available for 2024: January; February; March; and April.
Sunday newsletters focus on headlines and top read stories of the last week (in order) - enjoy!
TCN News Stories of the Month, April 2024
TCN Talks; by Chris Comeaux and Mark Cohen; 5/1/24
In this podcast Chris and Mark discuss our newsletter's top news stories for the month of April as reported in Hospice and Palliative Care Today. You can subscribe for free here: https://www.hospicepalliativecaretoday.com/registration.
Maddy Baloy had only 1 year to live after cancer diagnosis — and chose joy: 'Didn’t let anything defy her’
People; by Lizzie Hyman; 5/8/24
Even surrounded by loved ones in hospice care at her Florida home, Maddy Baloy craved adventure. “She kept saying, ‘I want to go outside and go swimming,’ ” her fiancé Louis Risher tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. It was how Baloy had approached each day from the time she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in February 2023, to the end of her life on May 2, 2024. In just over one year, the 26 year old gained the admiration and support of millions who followed her journey on TikTok as she worked her way through a 19-item bucket list of skills to learn, people to meet and places to go. “Maddy did not let anything defy her,” Risher, 27, says. “She was always just about love.”
[Australia] Palliative patients can die peacefully at home with paramedic support, claims proposed framework
Riotack - Australia; by James Day; 5/6/24
A 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.
Editor's Note: Pair this solution with related articles in today's newsletter, "Stranded in the ER, seniors await hospital care and suffer avoidable harm" and "How Mass General Brigham provides emergency care at home" (both are in our "Post-Acute" section).
Elara Caring, cited in death of visiting nurse Joyce Grayson, vows to contest violation
McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/3/24
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited home health, hospice and personal care provider Elara Caring for failing to provide adequate safeguards to protect visiting nurse Joyce Grayson from workplace violence. Grayson, a licensed practical nurse, was killed last Oct. 28 while providing a home health visit for a client living in a halfway house in Willimantic, CT. The DOL disclosed this week that its OSHA division cited New England Home Care, where Grayson worked, and Jordan Health Care Inc., which both do business as Elara Caring, with a “Willful-Serious” citation. Elara Caring faces up to $163,627 in penalties resulting from the citation. ...
Updated guidance on workplace harassment covers misgendering pronouns, bias over bathroom use, more
McKnights Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 5/2/24
Final guidance published last week by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission aims to clarify for employers, employees and others their obligations related to harassment in the workplace. ... This is the first update to the guidance in 25 years, aimed at enforcing more recent changes in federal law. EEOC clarified that harassment by any person — including employers, coworkers, customers and clients — can violate federal law. ... According to the EEOC, the new guidance “updates, consolidates and replaces the agency’s five guidance documents issued between 1987 and 1999 and serves as a single, unified agency resource on EEOC-enforced workplace harassment law.” Among other guidance, the EEOC calls out asking intrusive questions about a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender transition or intimate body parts as forms of harassment.
The power of art in palliative care
InSight+, Melbourne, Australia; by Caitlin Wright; 5/6/24
... Melbourne artist Jeffrey Kelson is known for his thought-provoking portraits, several of which have been exhibited at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. He believes a portrait is a window into a subject’s heart and mind. However, after being diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer, it wasn’t this style of art that Mr. Kelson was drawn to. As soon as he felt well enough to return to his studio, he started work on a series of colourful collages. “At one point, my wife came into the room and commented on how bright they were and how full of life force. She was surprised that I could create pieces that were so energetic when I felt so ill. I hadn’t really thought about it. I just needed to work,” he told InSight+. ... Palliative care specialist Dr Eric Fairbank was one of Mr Kelson’s art students for several years before Mr. Kelson’s diagnosis. He said Mr Kelson’s approach to his diagnosis has confirmed his belief that the best outcomes of cancer treatment are achieved when they’re complemented by the patient’s own resources of mind, will and spirit. [Click on the title's link to view several of his paintings.]
Patients, caregivers more willing to spend extra for home-based care, study finds
McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 4/30/24
[According to a new study published in JAMA Network Open:] ... On average, respondents were willing to spend an extra $51.81 for care that takes place in the home, compared to facility-based care such such as that in a skilled nursing facility. They were also more willing to pay more for care that can reduce their recovery time or reduce caregivers’ burden. Caregivers, meanwhile, also prioritized higher-quality care, even if it came with a heftier price tag.
Shocked at end-of-life: An educational video for hospice workers about Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Sarah Godfrey, MD, MPH; Christine L. Chen, MD; Melanie S. Sulistio, MD; Sharika Kumar, MD; and Kelley Newcomer, MD; 2/24
Introduction: Hundreds of thousands of patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) die yearly. Though ICD shocks can be lifesaving, they can also be severely painful. One third of ICD patients are shocked in the last day of life irrespective of DNR status. Over 97% of hospice programs admit patients with ICDs, yet only 10% have deactivation policies and less than 50% of hospice patients have their ICD deactivated. ...
Conclusion: Hospice personnel have limited knowledge about ICDs, prohibiting best care of patients with these devices at EOL. A short educational video increased knowledge and may serve as a helpful tool. Improving ICD knowledge amongst hospice personnel is essential to ensuring the unique needs of hospice patients with ICDs are met.
Chesapeake Life Center offers monthly LGBTQIA+ drop-in grief support group
Southern Maryland News Net; 5/6/24
Chesapeake Life Center will host a monthly drop-in grief support group for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. ... Grief is a hard and vulnerable time, and it is important to have safe spaces to process what we are going through. This group is intended for adult members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are grieving a past or approaching death. The group will be facilitated by a licensed queer therapist but will be loosely structured to offer an opportunity for participants to share their feelings and grieve with community.
Editor's Note: Hospice & Palliative Care Today does not post upcoming, local hospice events, grief support groups, volunteer trainings, etc. However, we're posting this LGBTQIA+ grief support ("past or approaching death") due to its profound need and support, with opportunities for replication by other hospices. Pair this support with the article we posted on 4/21/24: LGBTQ+ individuals have higher rates of cancer because of disparities in modifiable risk factors, ACS says.
Chutes and Ladders
Fierce Healthcare; by Noah Tong; 5/3/24
Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. [Click on the title's link for this extensive list.]
He thinks his wife died in an understaffed hospital. Now he’s trying to change the industry.
Fortune; by KFF Health News and Kate Wells; 4/19/24
For the past year, police Detective Tim Lillard has spent most of his waking hours unofficially investigating his wife’s death. The question has never been exactly how Ann Picha-Lillard died on Nov. 19, 2022: She succumbed to respiratory failure after an infection put too much strain on her weakened lungs. She was 65. For Tim Lillard, the question has been why.
Publisher's Note: We often discuss workforce shortages in terms of staff stress. This interesting and heartbreaking story explores workforce shortages in terms of patient harm.
How to become a great boss
By Jeffrey J. Fox; 2002
The Great Boss Simple Success Formula:
Publisher's note: A favorite book I re-read every few years! Fox also authored the bestselling How to become CEO and How to become a rainmaker.
The Fine Print:
Paywalls: Some links may take readers to articles that either require registration or are behind a paywall. Disclaimer: Hospice & Palliative Care Today provides brief summaries of news stories of interest to hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care professionals (typically taken directly from the source article). Hospice & Palliative Care Today is not responsible or liable for the validity or reliability of information in these articles and directs the reader to authors of the source articles for questions or comments. Additionally, Dr. Cordt Kassner, Publisher, and Dr. Joy Berger, Editor in Chief, welcome your feedback regarding content of Hospice & Palliative Care Today. Unsubscribe: Hospice & Palliative Care Today is a free subscription email. If you believe you have received this email in error, or if you no longer wish to receive Hospice & Palliative Care Today, please unsubscribe here or reply to this email with the message “Unsubscribe”. Thank you.