Literature Review

Design and death: palliative care needs more creativity AAP - Australian Associated Press; by Cassandra Morgan; 5/10/24 At the Caritas Christi palliative care unit, "homeliness" is sprawling crayon lines and scribbled messages of "get well soon", drawn by children in its arts room. It's the sense of quiet, the soft carpet underfoot, and the ability for patients to simply open a window, or walk outside their rooms and touch a tree or feel the soil. Architectural expert Rebecca McLaughlan says homeliness is more about what a space allows people to do than how it looks. ... "In subtle ways, these facilities do affect the quality of time and the quantity of time that people spend with their loved ones." ... The researcher is among experts advocating for greater design innovation in the palliative care sector - a concept often dismissed as incongruous with the reality of evolving health and safety regulations.

Obie the therapy dog promoted to chief morale officer at North Devon Hospice DevonLive; by Lewis Clarke; 5/10/24 A therapy dog has received his first official promotion after bringing comfort and smiles to patients, families, and staff at North Devon Hospice. Last month, pet therapy dog Obie was awarded the title of chief morale officer in recognition of his work helping patients and loved ones staying on the hospice’s bedded unit to enjoy cuddles and companionship. As well as being popular with those receiving care, Obie is also a welcome visitor for staff at the hospice. 

Around the nation: Steward Health Care puts hospitals up for sale following bankruptcyAdvisory Board; 5/10/24Steward Health Care, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, has placed all its 31 hospitals in the United States up for sale in hopes of finalizing transactions by the end of the summer to address its $9 billion debt, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Georgia, Illinois, and Texas.

Life Coordinated Commonwealth Pace holds ribbon cutting Marshall County Daily; by Staff Report; 5/10/24 Life Coordinated Commonwealth Pace held a Ribbon Cutting on Friday morning with special quest Governor Andy Beshear in attendance to launch the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the elderly in Western Kentucky. This is the first of three planned KY Pace centers which provide elders an option for in-home care versus nursing home care.  Life Coordinated Commonwealth Pace will serve qualifying PACE members in a six-county area in Western Kentucky that includes Marshall, Calloway, Graves, Hickman, Fulton and McCracken.

Treasury extends Medicare insolvency date, citing savings from home health McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/13/24 Medicare insolvency received a five-year extension — and part of the reprieve can be attributed to the cost of home health. Myriad factors, including job growth and low unemployment rate, contributed to the extension. The projections were also partly influenced by home health spending which has been “significantly lower than estimated prior to the pandemic,” according to the Social Security and Medicare Trustees report. “As a result of the recent home health staffing shortages, the trustees continue to consider the spending level for this service to be suppressed,” they said in the report. “Thus, they have increased their home health spending growth factor by 2.9 percentage points in each of the next 3 years.”

Why Walmart’s exit from healthcare is a wake-up call to providers Modern Healthcare; by Marty Bonick; 5/10/24 Marty Bonick is president and CEO of Nashville, Tennessee-based Ardent Health. Try healthcare, they said. It will be easy. There's so much to improve, they said. We can do it better. While "they" — the retailers and disruptors once keen to transform healthcare — weren't completely wrong, there's no doubt this thinking has shifted in recent months. ... Walmart's decision to shutter its health clinics and virtual care services is the latest high-profile exit in the retail health sector. Already this year, Walgreens has announced plans to close 160 VillageMD clinics while Amazon cut jobs within its One Medical unit and Optum is closing its telehealth business. 

Investing in employee engagement can add a competitive advantageHomeCare; by Jeffrey Knapp; 5/9/24You cannot pay people enough to care. But it is possible to attract and retain great talent and bring out the best in them by fully engaging employees in a shared purpose, giving them a sense that their work is worthwhile and that they are making a difference in the world. That is the culture effect on health care staffing. ... For leaders who want either to start building or to invest more in a culture infrastructure, do not forget these essential steps: 

Hospice pivotal to Enhabit’s growth strategy as a standalone company Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 5/9/24Hospice will remain a core piece of Enhabit Inc.’s (NYSE: EHAB) strategic growth plans following its recent announcements to remain a standalone business. The company was mum about its strategic decision not to sell in Thursday’s earnings call, but executives elaborated on its home health and hospice focal points. 

Nurse Practitioner care, scope of practice, and end-of-life outcomes for nursing home residents with dementia JAMA Health Forum - JAMA Network; by Cyrus M. Kosar, PhD; Bishnu B. Thapa, MPA, PhD; Ulrike Muench, RN, PhD; Christopher Santostefano, RN, MPH; Emily A. Gadbois, PhD; Hyesung Oh, MA, MBA; Pedro L. Gozalo, PhD; Momotazur Rahman, PhD; Elizabeth M. White, APRN, PhD; 5/10/24 Question: Is nurse practitioner (NP) care associated with end-of-life outcomes for nursing home residents with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD), and do these associations differ between states with full vs restrictive NP scope of practice regulations? Findings: The results of this cohort study including 334 618 US nursing home residents with ADRD indicated that decedents with greater NP involvement at end of life had fewer hospitalizations and higher hospice use. The adjusted differences in outcomes between decedents with extensive vs minimal NP care were larger in states with full scope of practice regulations than in states with restrictive regulations.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and activist Denella Clark join forces to help women giving care to terminally ill loved ones MSN / The Boston Globe; by Adrian Walker; 5/11/24  Ayanna Pressley and Denella James Clark are sisters in a sorority no one wants to join. The congresswoman and the educator-activist are both women who have lost their mothers. Or, more precisely, women who have shared the experience of being principal caregivers to mothers who are terminally ill. ... As they supported each other in the process of grieving, Pressley and Clark thought of the many people — especially the many women — who act as caregivers to their loved ones in the final stages of their lives. So this Mother’s Day Weekend they are launching the Pressley-James Lovin’ Gestures Fund, which will provide financial help to people providing care to terminally ill close relatives. ...

At age 99, Jimmy Carter is still exercising his right to vote Story by CNN and Atlanta News First; 5/10/24 Former President Jimmy Carter, age 99, is still exercising his right to vote. Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, said the nation’s 39th president cast a mail-in ballot this week for the May 21 Georgia primary, emphasizing his grandfather is not going to miss an election. The former president entered hospice care more than a year ago in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Since then he celebrated his 99th birthday last October and attended the annual Peanut Festival, which celebrates the region’s cash crop. He also mourned the loss of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who died in November at the age of 96. To date, that has been Jimmy Carter’s last public appearance. 

60 racial disparities in hospitalization outcomes among women With metastatic breast cancer in the United States by palliative care utilizationCancer Network; by Debu Tripathy, MD; 5/10/24 Background: While studies have reported that members of racial and minority populations hospitalized with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) have lower palliative care use than non-Hispanic White women, disparities in hospital-associated outcomes among inpatients have not been explored in this population. We examined the racial disparities in hospitalization outcomes among adult women with a diagnosis of MBC, stratified by receipt of palliative care. Conclusions: Despite the improvement in palliative care use over the years, members of racial minority populations continue to have poorer outcomes. However, patients who are Black with MBC who received palliative care had similar in-hospital mortality and were less likely to be discharged to a facility when compared with their White counterparts.