Executive Personnel Changes - 2/13/26

• Care Synergy proudly welcomes Kristin Ann Keefe, MD, as its new Chief Medical Officer—"a physician leader whose career reflects a deep commitment to compassionate, high-quality hospice and palliative care."
  
  
• Homecare and Hospice of the Valley announced Dr. Kelli Konst-Skwiot as its new Medical Director in an effort to further strengthen the organization's commitment to patient-centered care for individuals and families across the Roaring Fork Valley, according to a news release.
  
  

• LifeTouch Health of North Little Rock has appointed Nikki Taylor, APRN-FNP-C, HEC-C, CADDCT, as Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer, the company recently announced. Taylor replaces Anita Deal, RN, who recently retired. 

Aveanna CEO: Hospice multiples still too high 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 2/13/26 
As Aveanna Healthcare Holdings considers potential acquisitions, hospices are not on the menu due to their high price tags. Hospice multiples skyrocketed during the boom M&A years of 2019 through 2022, reaching as high a 26x, sometimes more. As transactions slowed down between 2023 and 2025, one contributing factor was a disconnect between sellers’ and buyers’ expectations regarding valuations. Now hospice deals are picking up steam. The fourth quarter of 2025 saw the industry’s highest deal volume since 2021, and one reason is that sellers’ and buyers’ expectations are becoming more aligned. However, this trend hasn’t yet gone far enough, according to Aveanna CEO Jeff Shaner. “[Hospice multiples] are all north of 10x. ..."

VITAS CEO Joel Wherley: 4 core values of hospice care 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 2/6/26 
A mission-driven approach that prioritizes patient and employee well-being is crucial to success as a hospice business, according to Joel Wherley, president and CEO of VITAS Healthcare. ... Hospice News sat down with Wherley at the Home Care 100 conference in Scottsdale, Arizona to discuss his outlook for hospice in 2026, what the community can expect for VITAS in 2026 and what keeps him up at night as a health care leader. ...

• Our first key core value is that patients and families come first.  ...
• Our second key core value, however, aligns right next to that first key core value, and that is, we take care of each other. ...
• Our third key core value is, I think, a really unique but simplistic thought. We’re humans providing care for humans. ...
• Then the fourth one to me, in hospice something that I have learned that I think is the most important. Hospice is not about death. It’s about life. ...

Oregon considers bill to stop hospice scammers from entering state 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 2/13/26 
State lawmakers in Oregon are mulling a bill designed to combat hospice fraud. Senate Bill 1575 would prevent hospices that have committed fraud or provided substandard care in other states from setting up shop in Oregon. If enacted, the Oregon Health Authority, a state agency, would examine the history of companies seeking to open hospices before approving a license, including Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey results, among other information. 

This American Heart Month, Carolina Caring elevates cardiac care for serious illness 
Carolina Caring, Newton, NC; Press Release; 2/9/26 
February is American Heart Month, a national effort to raise awareness about heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. As of 2025, 6.7 million Americans over the age of 20 are living with heart failure (Heart Failure Society of America, 2025). ... In response, Carolina Caring’s Advanced Cardiac Care program provides effective, tailored support to patients with chronic heart conditions. As the first cardiac care program of its kind in North Carolina, Carolina Caring combines nationally recognized standards of care with a home-based hospice approach. 

Is your ladder leaning against the wrong wall? Richard Mobley on leadership and calling | part one 
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); hosted by Chris Comeaux with Richard Mobley; 2/18/26 
What if you spend decades building a successful career—only to realize you were climbing the wrong ladder?  In this episode of TCNtalks / Anatomy of Leadership, executive leadership coach Richard Mobley, Founder and Principal of the Seven Four Group, Inc. and the Be Far More! System, joins Chris Comeaux to explore one of the most important questions leaders face: What comes after success? For CEOs, healthcare executives, and Hospice leaders approaching retirement or transition, this conversation centers on the critical shift from achievement to lasting significance—and what it truly means to finish well. 

Embedding care in the ED: Liz Goldberg and Lauren Southerland 
GeriPal; podcast by Alex Smith with Dr. Liz Goldberg and Dr. Lauren Southerland; 2/12/26 
The idea of embedding various forms of non-emergency care in the emergency department makes a WORLD of sense.  If an older adult comes into the ED with a fall, the minimum the ED has to do is address the fall injury and send them out. But many emergency providers realize this is often a band aid.  They see that patient again the next time they fall.  And again.  And again.  The same could be said for the patient who is malnourished and dehydrated and admitted for “failure to thrive,” again. And again. Our two guests today, Liz Goldberg and Lauren Southerland, both emergency medicine physician-researchers, have had enough.  ...

Choice Health at Home acquires Alliant Home Health, Palliative Care, Hospice 
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 2/17/26 
Choice Health at Home has acquired Alliant Home Health, as well as Alliant Palliative Care and Hospice. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. The two acquired businesses were part of Colorado-based Alliant Living, which provides hospice, home health and palliative care. Alliant Home Health’s services include occupational and physical therapy, as well as skilled nursing care for patients post-acute and chronic conditions. The acquisition expands Choice Health at Home’s existing geographic presence in the state. The transaction was recently completed following its closure on November 12, 2025.

[England] Almost one in three people in England die without the basic care they need 
Medical Xpress; by King's College London, edited by Lisa Lock; 2/16/26 
About 170,000 people in England every year spend their final days in pain, distress or without vital support that should be available to everyone at the end of life. These are the findings of the first major study in more than a decade to estimate unmet palliative care needs among people at the end of life. The paper was led by researchers at King's College London and Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, with contributions from the University of Edinburgh and was published in the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy.

Palliative external beam radiation therapy for dysphagia in a 101-year-old man with esophageal adenocarcinoma
Cureus; by Pericles J. Ioannides, Jester M. Odrunia, Gina N. Perez, Morgan Butow, Georg A. Weidlich; 1/26
Esophageal adenocarcinoma in centenarians is rare, and treatment options in this age group are limited. We present the case of a 101-year-old male patient with symptomatic distal gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who presented with progressive dysphagia, aspiration, and weight loss. The patient underwent palliative external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) ... targeting the obstructive esophageal mass with a margin using volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) technique. The treatment was well tolerated by the patient with no significant acute toxicity. After treatment, the patient reported clinically meaningful improvement in functional status, with improved swallowing, advancing from liquids to a soft diet, weight gain, and improved QoL. Moderate-dose palliative radiation can be a safe and effective treatment in a centenarian with obstructive GEJ adenocarcinoma, particularly when endoscopic interventions are not successful or durable.

Difficult encounters: How to set boundaries in the context of structural inequities
Journal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Carrie C. Wu, Erik K. Fromme; 1/26
Difficult encounters between patients and clinicians impact all areas of medical care, yet how to manage them is not routinely taught in medical training. This paper presents a case of a patient with cancer who struggled with emotional outbursts and impulsive behaviors. In the context of the racial trauma and socioeconomic challenges that the patient also experienced, the team struggled with boundary setting. We will review both traditional and contemporary approaches to the management of difficult clinician-patient interactions, while also addressing some of the limitations of existing frameworks. We will explore the role of bias in boundary setting and make suggestions for individual-, team-, and system-level approaches.

'An alarm bell': Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service shutters amid turmoil for home health care 
Santa Fe New Mexican; Santa Fe, NM; by Margaret O'Hara; 2/16/26 
A home health and hospice agency that has been serving Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties for more than 50 years will shutter later this month, a closure agency officials attributed to decreasing revenue from patient insurance and sharply rising health care costs. Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service will halt operations Friday. The loss should serve as a warning, said Meggin Lorino, executive director of the New Mexico Association for Home and Hospice Care. The decision to shutter Los Alamos Visiting Nurses comes as rural health care providers grapple with an abundance of challenges, which range from operating on razor-thin financial margins to impending cuts to Medicaid to the added pressures of the state’s aging population.
Editor's Note: This provides further information to the article we posted 2/13/26, "Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service closing its doors but other options are available to those in need."

Integrity can be neither lost nor concealed nor faked nor quenched not artificially come by nor outlived, nor, I believe, in the long run, denied. ~Eudora Welty