Literature Review

Prisma uses VR tech to bring outdoors to hospice patients UpstateToday.com, Seneca, SC; by Andrea Kelley; 6/8/24 Years ago, Lisa Dwiggins headed out West to visit her father, Bobby Finch. They hopped on his motorcycle — a Harley Davidson — and wound through the canyons, taking in the view. Thanks to a new virtual reality program at Prisma Health Hospice of the Foothills, Dwiggins and Finch were able to visit those places again — together. ... “Those were areas Dad talked about over the years,” Dwiggins told The Journal. “He lived in Las Vegas for over 30 years, rode his Harley all through the canyons and up along the coast, and talked about the sunsets at Huntington Beach. It’s been 6 years since Dad has been back there, and he has been trying to get back to visit but his health prevented him to getting back. This program at least allowed him to reminisce the good times he had.” The experience was made even more special because with Tandem VR, Dwiggins could join Finch.

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne: Crack down on hospice fraud Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/12/24 Rep. Beth Van Duyne, (R-Texas) has emerged as one of Washington’s most vocal advocates for hospice providers in Congress. ... Van Duyne was among a group of lawmakers that wrote to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks LaSure last month requesting updates on the agency’s battles against fraudulent providers, as well as a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on quality issues in the hospice space. Hospice News spoke with Rep. Van Duyne in Washington D.C. on congressional efforts to root out fraud and where they should go next. 

Nursing homes are left in the dark as more utilities cut power to prevent wildfires News-Medical.net; by KFF Health News; 6/10/24 When powerful wind gusts created threatening wildfire conditions one day near Boulder, Colorado, the state's largest utility cut power to 52,000 homes and businesses — including Frasier, an assisted living and skilled nursing facility. It was the first time Xcel Energy preemptively switched off electricity in Colorado as a wildfire prevention tool, according to a company official. The practice, also known as public safety power shut-offs, has taken root in California and is spreading elsewhere as a way to keep downed and damaged power lines from sparking blazes and fueling the West's more frequent and intense wildfires. 

NPHI: Increase scrutiny of PE hospice transactions Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/11/24 Federal regulators should increase scrutiny of private equity activity in the hospice space, according to the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). NPHI is a membership organization comprising more than 100 nonprofit, community-integrated hospice and palliative care providers from 38 states and the District of Columbia. The organization recently submitted comments in response to a Request for Information from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 

WorldView announces Referral AI, the most accurate referral classification platform to increase home health and hospice revenue Investors Observer; by PR Newswire; 6/10/24 WorldView , a leading provider of integrated healthcare technology to the top home health and hospice EHR/EMR platforms, today announced the upcoming launch of Referral AI, an enhancement to automate intake referrals using a custom AI/ML model built specific for the healthcare industry. ... Home health and hospice agencies receive many forms of electronic documents in their inbox, including referrals for new patient service. Referrals must be acted on quickly, but with documents being dozens of pages, they often sit unread or, worse, are missed or overlooked. Over time, the referral can become invalid, resulting in lost revenue for the agency and posing a risk of delayed service for patients.

AI in healthcare – Enhancing treatment plans, engaging patients, and impacting patient outcomes Healthcare IT Today; by Grayson Miller; 6/10/24 A lot of the buzz around AI is about the potential that it holds. We talk a lot about how different AI applications and tools could save us time or how they could improve the patient experience. But what is it actively doing to the world of healthcare? In order to find out, we reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to ask them – how is artificial intelligence being utilized to enhance treatment planning, engage patients at scale, and what impact is it having on patient outcomes? The following are their answers. ... [Click on the title's link to read more.]

Navigating Aging: New help for dealing with aggression in people with dementia Northern Kentucky Tribune; by Judith Graham, KFF Health News; 6/9/24Caring for older adults with dementia is stressful, especially when they become physically or verbally aggressive, wander away from home, develop paranoia or hallucinations, engage in inappropriate or repetitive behaviors, or refuse to let caregivers help them. Upward of 95% of patients experience these neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, which tend to fluctuate over time and vary in intensity. They’re the primary reasons people with dementia end up in assisted living facilities or nursing homes. At some point, families and friends trying to help at home simply can’t manage. “When people think about dementia, they usually think about forgetfulness and memory impairment,” said Mary Blazek, director of the geriatric psychiatry clinic at the University of Michigan. “But it’s behavioral and psychological disturbances that are most disruptive to patients’ and caregivers’ lives.”

Daughter stole $25K using [dying] father's credit, debit cardsLatrobe Bulletin, Latrobe, PA; by Joseph Bell; 6/6/24 A Vandergrift woman is facing multiple felony charges after she racked up over $25,000 in credit and debit card debt using her father’s accounts. According to court records, 44-year-old Kimberly Sue Shaw of Hancock Avenue is accused of using three of her father’s credit and debit cards for unauthorized purchases, in addition to transferring a sum of money from one of his bank accounts to another while he was hospitalized and later under hospice care. The defendant’s father, Dennis Lee Barger of Washington Township, died May 2.Editor's Note: Often, we think of elder abuse as being physical harm. However, it includes much more, and your interdisciplinary team members must be trained to signs, assessments, interventions, and safety (for the patient and self). Definitions are available on the CDC's "About Abuse of Older Persons" webpage. These definitions include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, neglect, and financial abuse.

Personal conflicts, even violence, are not uncommon in long-term care The New York Times; by Paula Span; 6/9/24... In long-term care facilities, residents sometimes yell at or threaten one other, lob insults, invade fellow residents’ personal or living space, rummage through others’ possessions and take them. They can swat or kick or push. Or worse. Eilon Caspi, a gerontologist at the University of Connecticut, has searched news coverage and coroners’ reports and identified 105 resident deaths in long-term care facilities over 30 years that resulted from incidents involving other residents. The actual number is higher, he said, because such deaths don’t always receive news media attention or are not reported in detail to the authorities. “We have this extraordinary paradox: the institutions, nursing homes and assisted livings who care for the most vulnerable members of our society are some of the most violent in our society,” said Karl Pillemer, a Cornell University gerontologist who has studied resident-to-resident conflict for years. [Click on the article's title for more. Might require subscription to access the full article.]

Hospice patient reunites with music student in Mesa after 40 years Mesa Independent; by Lin Sue Flood; 6/7/24When Hospice of the Valley music therapist Tammy Reiver first met patient Nancy Scullion and her husband Mike, it was clear the visit was going to be special. ... Tammy realized she was sitting face to face with her junior high music teacher. ... Nancy owns several instruments, including a keyboard, guitar and violin. The weekly music therapy sessions motivated Nancy to play one of them again. With her husband’s help, she took out her violin. ... “Finding those old instruments in the back of the closet and playing them allowed Nancy to reconnect to an old version of herself…suddenly, she became energized and vibrant!” Allison said. “Music fills a soul and brings it to life!” ... Tammy will never forget this experience. “This is life coming full circle with those who served, and who we now serve in return. ... I am honored and blessed beyond measure.”

How to choose the right hospice care - Brain & Life Magazine Brain & Life; by Hallie Levine; June/July 2024 Hospice care is designed to help patients die with dignity and provide support to their families. These tips can help ensure it does. ... [Case study examples follow.] In hospice, “the focus shifts from treating the disease to managing symptoms and maintaining quality of life,” says James Gordon, MD, FAAN, a neurologist and retired hospice and palliative care expert at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Patients and their families often get to a point where they ask themselves if the cure is causing more suffering than it's worth,” Dr. Gordon says. “If they are close to the end of life, it's often time for hospice.”Editor's Note: We chose this article because its source, Brain & Life Magazine. This can be an excellent disease-specific resource for your serious illness, palliative, hospice, and bereavement team members. "Brain & Life is powered by more than 40,000 neurologists worldwide who are committed to keeping you and your family better informed." Visit its "Disorders A-Z: Neurologic Disorders Resource Center (brainandlife.org)." 

Haven Hospice team members win three Florida Hospice and Palliative Care Association awardsPress release; 6/5/24Gainesville, FL: Three Haven Hospice team members were awarded with Florida Hospice and Palliative Care Association (FHPCA) Awards of Excellence at the 2024 FHPCA 39th Forum in Orlando, Florida.

Higher sepsis mortality in safety-net hospitals linked to fewer post-discharge care options Contagion Live - Infectious Diseases Today; by Kenneth Bender, PharmD, MA; 6/9/24 Purportedly higher sepsis mortality in safety-net hospitals reflects less a difference in acute care than opportunities to discharge to hospice. By extending the measure of sepsis-related mortality from in-hospital events to occurrences within 30 days after the diagnosis, the purported higher mortality rate of sepsis treated in safety-net hospitals decreased to parity with non-safety-net hospitals, in a retrospective national cohort study. The investigators note the particular challenges of safety-net hospitals, which care for a disproportionately high share of low-income and underinsured patients, include fewer resources and narrower operating margins, as well as patient populations with decreased access to preventative care and more complex disease presentations.