Tuesday's Tools: Find evidence-based research in our Saturday issues
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy Berger; 8/17/26

Calling all readers to our new Tuesday’s Tools series. Each Tuesday, we’ll highlight a tool included with your free subscription to help you use our news to improve the care you provide.

This week’s tool: our Saturday issues.

Each Saturday, Hospice & Palliative Care Today slows the business pace of the workweek with in-depth, evidence-based research recently published in reputable professional journals. These articles are expertly curated by our Assistant Editor Cathy Wagner, RN, MSN, MBA, a former hospice CEO and nurse.

We are committed to equipping you with timely, reputable research that informs the challenges you face and helps strengthen best practices for patient and family care, staffing, and more.

Easy ways to use our Saturday research issues:

1. Your inbox: Look for your Saturday edition of Hospice & Palliative Care Today.
2. Search: Login to your newsletter account from our homepage and enter a keyword in the Search box. Results link you directly to the original sources.
3. Share with leaders and teams: Forward your email or an article's URL to specific leaders and teams, or use the LinkedIn share button on our webpage. 
4. Put research into practice: Compare findings with your clinical protocols, education, quality and compliance practices, and other internal systems.

Use these Saturday issues to stay current with emerging evidence, deepen conversations with your teams, and strengthen the care you provide. Identify what affirms your current practices—and what may need to change.

Coastal Corvette Club gives back to Delaware Hospice
Cape Gazette, Lewes, DE; by Ellen McIntyre; 8/16/26 
Coastal Corvette Club of Delaware presented an $8,400 check to Delaware Hospice during an Aug. 3 meeting at Big Oyster Brewery in Milford. The donation, which the club raised through its annual Corvette Extravaganza car show at i.g. Burton Lewes Automall June 13, will directly offset the cost of hospice patient care. "Every dime that we bring in is a huge help," said Delaware Hospice Director of Philanthropy Peggy Dolby, who accepted the check on the hospice's behalf. "You guys benefit us at the highest level, [and] it doesn't go unnoticed."

Columbus Hospice purse party raises $16,000 at Bibb Mill Event Center 
WTVM-9, Columbus, GA; by Jason Williams; 8/15/26 
Columbus Hospice hosted its 11th annual Purse Party at the Bibb Mill Event Center, raising $16,000 — surpassing its $10,000 fundraising goal. ... More than 400 purses were available at the event. Attendees could visit a bargain table, make a donation in exchange for a purse, bid in a silent auction, or participate in a live auction that featured male models displaying purses. ... Terri Roberts, vice president of business development at Columbus Hospice, said all funds raised go back into the organization’s mission. “And we do not turn anybody away regardless of their ability to pay. ..."

Dad demands answers after daughter dies of rare cancer: why are so many kids getting sick in this community? (exclusive)
People; by Wendy Grossman Kantor; 8/14/26
Lilly Dalton grew up a few miles from Ladera Ranch, where at least a dozen young people and children have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma. Three days after graduating from college at Loyola University in New Orleans, Lilly Dalton told her parents her stomach hurt. Doctors found a tumor on the 21-year-old’s liver and she was diagnosed with a very rare, one-of-a-kind cancer. Lilly was raised in Laguna Niguel, a city in Orange County, Calif. — just six miles from Ladera Ranch, where 12 children and young adults have been diagnosed with another rare cancer, Ewing sarcoma. “That’s not a coincidence,” says her father, Brian Dalton, 49, who now lives in Meridian, Idaho, with Lilly’s mom, Nicole Dalton, 50. 

The art and skill of caring for terminally ill patients in clinical research and beyond
Clinical Leader; by Kamila Novak; 8/14/26

... How we see terminally ill people, treat them, and talk to them matters immensely. We can spark their day with true attention and kindness or make it more difficult by saying things that sound like platitudes. We may have the best intentions, but what we say and what the person hears is not always the same. Imagine that you work in a hospital or a palliative care facility. You enter the patient’s room early in the morning with a loud, cheerful, “Good morning! How are you today?” The person was resting until you entered. They are unwell. Body functions are shutting down, they may be in pain, and they could have had a sleepless night. ... The same goes for phrases like:

• “You look better today!”
• “I know how you feel.”
• “How are we doing?”
• “You are strong.”
• “Do not give up. Keep fighting. Better days will come.”

If you truly want to know how the person feels and show genuine care, ask these questions instead:

• “Do you have pain?”
• “How was your night?”
• “Is there something I can help you with?” ...

How SNF upper payment limits can hurt hospices 
Hospice News; by Brandyn Simmons; 8/17/2 
When it comes to healthcare — especially if it involves Medicare or Medicaid — one solution can lead to new problems. The Upper Payment Limit (UPL) program is no exception to this rule. Across the spectrum in healthcare, Medicaid reimbursements have typically been inadequate in covering all expenses for patient care. This is where the UPL comes in. Under this initiative, providers such as skilled nursing facilities (SNF) can receive a gap payment through Medicare to make up the difference. While this is a boon for SNFs, this can become a major headache for many hospice companies across the United States. ...

4 huge Medicare pay reforms are part of new bipartisan House bill 
American Medical Association (AMA); by Tanya Albert Henry; 8/11/26 
With more physician Medicare pay cuts proposed for 2027, a new comprehensive, bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would finally make structural changes that are needed to prevent those cuts and create a payment system that helps ensure that America’s seniors have access to quality, value-based healthcare. The AMA-supported Patients First Act (H.R. 9693) addresses four core reforms that the AMA and organized medicine have long sought from Washington. If passed, the bill would:

• Establish automatic, annual inflation-based payment updates.
• Modernize budget-neutrality policies.
• Create simplified and clinically relevant quality measurement.
• Give doctors greater opportunities to participate in alternative payment models (APMs).

Strategic leadership and the future of corporate learning an in-depth analysis of modern workforce development trends 
Recruit-Talent.com | Employee Training & Development; 8/14/26
The landscape of corporate learning and development (L&D) is currently undergoing a fundamental transformation, shifting from a traditional "cost-center" model toward a core strategic function essential for organizational survival. In the latest installment of the Chief Learning Officer’s “Learning Insights” series, a high-level examination of this evolution reveals how visionary leaders are navigating the complexities of workforce development in an era defined by rapid technological advancement and shifting employee expectations. ... 
Essential Qualities of the Modern Learning Leader ... Key leadership traits identified by industry experts include:

• Strategic Alignment:...
• Deep Listening and Empathy: ...
• Simplification: ...
• Curiosity and Adaptability: ...

Editor's Note: What do the goals and outcomes of your clinical orientation and education systems reveal about what your organization values? Money over mission? Mission without attention to money? Assumptions that clinicians can immediately transition from curative to hospice and palliative care? Or intentional preparation for the human work of walking with dying, death, and grief—with dignity, compassion, and quality of care?

A woman died while evacuating the Old Trails fire, the first known death tied to the blaze 
The Spokesman-Review; by Elena Perry; 8/14/26 
A 73-year-old woman is dead from medical complications she suffered while evacuating a nursing home during the start of the Old Trails fire, her daughter said. In the scramble to evacuate Spokane Health and Rehabilitation on Aug. 1, resident and hospice patient Pat Speedy’s bowels ruptured, her daughter Kimberly Speedy said, likely from being wheeled in her hospital bed along the uneven terrain of the parking lot. She died on Aug. 9.

AARP is working to root out health care ageism 
AARP; by Megan O'Reilly; 7/27/26 
... In collaboration with the Gerontological Society of America, AARP launched a training program last year to help future health professionals recognize and stop age-based bias. Tested at 13 universities across the country with about 500 students, the program uses health care scenarios and practical tools that remind providers to listen first and treat people as individuals, not stereotypes. ... Additionally, AARP has pushed for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to allow Medicare to cover essential training for family caregivers. And we fought for a measure to assess hospitals’ commitment to improving care for older patients. We also collaborated with the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative to train ER personnel to recognize dementia symptoms. ...

4 things healthcare leaders should do before their next AI rollout 
Forbes; by Amanda Eisel; 7/31/26 
​Talk to enough leaders across healthcare right now and you'll hear the same pattern. Someone raises the topic of AI. The room leans forward. Pilots are funded and launched. Six months later, the honest postmortem says some version of the same thing: The technology worked, but the adoption didn't. The gap is human, not technical. And in healthcare, where sensitive data and regulated workflows raise the stakes on every decision, that gap doesn’t just slow a rollout. It costs trust that takes years to rebuild. Healthcare doesn’t need more AI. It needs a people-led strategy that comes before the technology decision, not after it. ...

1. Name the problem before you name the tool. ...
2. Put your people function in the room early, not after the rollout. ...
3. Build trust into the rollout, don’t bolt it on after. ...
4. Measure whether the work changed, not whether the pilot worked. ...

Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you. ~ Wendell Berry