Technology Documentation Automation a Priority in Hospice AI 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 12/15/25 
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly proliferating throughout health care and beyond. Among its many applications, streamlining documentation is among the most prevalent for hospices. Hospices leverage documentation software for a wide array of functions, including visit scheduling, care plan updates, interdisciplinary team notes, medication management and bereavement services, as well as billing, compliance tracking and family communication, among other functions.

Hospice of Wichita Falls expands outreach with renovated facility 
CBS News-6, Wichita Falls, TX; by Rachel Gomez Ramirez; 12/12/25 
Today [12/12/25], Hospice of Wichita Falls held an open house showcasing their newly renovated facility, built by and for the community. Isha Howerton, Director of Development for Hospice of Wichita Falls, explained that the Building on a Legacy of Care fundraiser campaign initially began in 2017 and is nearing completion. Through this campaign, the community raised $15 million to build a new inpatient care center and renovate the existing one. Today’s event marked the new facility’s final renovation phase. ... [Additionally, by] meeting their campaign goal of $340,000, the non-profit hospice can continue to support charity care for those who need end-of-life care.

Southern Care Collaborative a model for regional hospice collectives 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 12/12/25 
As nonprofits seek to build scale in order to compete with larger competitors, some are banding together in regional collaboratives. In these efforts, the Southern Care Collaborative, founded in 2022, could serve as a model. The organization includes 11 hospice members operating in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The hospices are pooling resources and joining forces to build economies of scale and payer relationships without any change in ownership. 

Chapters Health System announces national rebranding of grief support camps for children 
PR Newswire, Temple Terrace, FL; by Chapters Health System; 12/12/25 
Chapters Health System, the nation's leading chronic illness innovator and largest nonprofit hospice provider, proudly announced a unified grief support camp name, Camp Brave Heart, and logo for programs across the country starting in 2026. Each camp program will remain tailored to the needs of the local community and the longstanding tradition of providing a supportive place for children to process and share.

My patient was gone. I had to help his family see it: The art of medicine means sitting with families’ grief and hope 
Stat10 - First Opinion; by Raya Elfadel Kheirbek; 12/15/25 
Bullets tore through Michael Thompson’s car at a stop sign, ending the life of a 35-year-old father in an instant. Just minutes earlier, he had dropped his 8-year-old daughter, Emma, at dance class, her pink tutu bouncing as she waved goodbye. Now, in the ICU, his young body lay tethered to machines — ... a ventilator’s hiss forcing his chest to rise. ... His family’s grief filled the room, raw and heavy, as I prepared to document our meeting. On the screen, a pop-up appeared: “Patient is deceased; do you want to continue?” Its cold bluntness paled against their pain. Michael looked alive. His chest rose and fell with the ventilator. ... Medicine isn’t just tests or machines. It is presence — sitting with families in their grief, faith, and love. Our tools should support that presence, not interrupt it with cold prompts. ... Most U.S. hospitals lack clear guidelines for these situations, leaving families and clinicians alike in limbo. They also worried about organ donation — a decision fewer than 1% of families consent to after brain death, often because the body still looks alive.
Editor's Note: We thank the palliative care physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains who provide sensitive presence with families in the unbearable spaces between hope and loss, especially when life support decisions arise. In this season, may we pause to honor those who carry this sacred work—and remember the families who have had to accept harsh truths while machines still “breathe.”

Palliative and hospice care in prostate cancer: A scoping review 
Urologic Oncology; by Andrew Glaza, Aidan Kennedy, Minhaj Jabeer, Siddharth Ramanathan, Agyeiwaa Obeng, Bernadette Zwaans, Jason Hafron; Jan 2026, Online ahead of print
Advanced prostate cancer presents therapeutic and prognostic challenges at the end of life. Palliative and hospice care improve quality of life, reduce hospitalizations, and enhance patient-centered decision-making. ...  On average, 40.4% of patients received palliative care, 14.74% hospice, and 1.3% received both. Early integration was associated with better quality of life, fewer hospital admissions, reduced aggressive interventions, and increased cost savings. Most referrals occurred late in the disease trajectory. ... Future research should focus on barriers to timely referral and evaluate their effects on clinical and economic outcomes in prostate cancer.

Perceptions of family caregiving change across demographic lines 
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 12/12/25 
Family caregiver burden may be falling heavier on the shoulders of certain demographic groups compared to others, a new survey has found. Perceptions of family caregiver roles and responsibilities vary vastly across different age groups, geographic regions and genders, a new survey from BURD Home Health has found. Survey responses were analyzed by demographics such as gender, income, age and geographic location. Among the main goals was to identify patterns and disparities in how caregiving duties are perceived and distributed, according to Justin Colline, director of marketing at BURD Home Health.
Editor's Note: Key findings from the source survey include ..

• The Desire for Balance: Families Striving for Shared Care ...
• Caregiving and Family Dynamics: How Relationships Evolve Through Shared Responsibility ...
• The Family Balancing Act: Caregiving’s Emotional Weight ...
• The Financial Fix: Should Siblings Pay Up If They Don't Show Up? ...
• Summary: The findings from BURD Home Health reveal a nation wrestling with outdated expectations, logistical challenges, and an evolving desire for fairness.

House passes legislation that extends acute hospital care at home program through 2030 
Health IT Answers | Industry News; 12/15/25 
ATA Action, the advocacy arm of the American Telemedicine Association, comments on the U.S. House passing the U.S. House of the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act (H.R. 4313) recently, which extends the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCaH) program through 2030. This is an important step to avert another lapse of essential care for Medicare patients on January 30, 2026. ... “In a solid show of bipartisan support, the House passed legislation under suspension, to ensure that millions of Medicare beneficiaries will continue to have access ..."

Daughters of Marshall: 4th-generation graduate credits family's perseverance for her success 
The Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, WV; by Mary Jane Epling; 12/13/25 
What looks like an ordinary graduation stage to most will feel more like a well-worn trail to Marshall University senior Emma Randan--a path carved by three generations of women who crossed it before her.  ... [Forty-six years before] her great-grandmother, Laura Darby, was wrapping up her long-awaited associate's degree in nursing, taking part in Marshall's Class of 1979. ... Darby would go on to complete a bachelor's degree in nursing and earned a master's by 1982, using her Marshall-built network to dream up Hospice of Huntington for a senior project. The nonprofit founded by Darby was the first hospice in the state of West Virginia to become Medicare-certified, and it still provides end-of-life care to patients from West Virginia, southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky.

Retirement? Not for this 80-year-old oncology nurse in Naples 
USA Today / The Florida Times-Union / Pressreader, Fort Myers, FL; by Liz Freeman; 12/12/25
Carolyn Paget never imagined NCH Baker Hospital would throw her a birthday party for turning 80. Or that she would still be logging at least 8,000 steps during a 12-hour shift as a registered nurse in the oncology unit where she has worked for more than two decades. ... "She actually helps patients make the decision when hospice is the way to go. Patients respect her." ... According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ...the share of workers 75 and older is expected to grow from 9% in 2020 to nearly 12% by 2030.

[England] Hospice patient's hidden paintings on show 
BBC News, Bishop Auckland, England; by Gemma Sherlock and Stephanie Cleasby; 12/13/25 
A hospice patient has had his wish come true as a set of his watercolours, previously hidden away in a cupboard, have gone on display. ... Now the 13 paintings are being viewed by the public for the very first time at Bishop Auckland's Artists' Hub. Mr. Scott, 86, who is receiving palliative care at St. Oswald's Hospice in Gosforth, said: "All I've ever wanted is for people to see my paintings." ... It was not until a conversation between social worker Marisa Woodward and his sister Sue Coxon that Mr. Scott's paintings were discovered. Mrs. Woodward then contacted The Auckland Project ... for advice on how to display them.... Mr. Scott's pieces will be on display for a month before they are donated to St. Oswald's Hospice.

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy. Pay attention to the cracks, ‘cause that’s where the light gets in. ~ Meryl Streep