Literature Review

Heart & Soul: Nikki HarrisCharleston Area Medical Center, Charleston, WV; 4/8/25 Nikki Harris is a Charge Nurse on 4 West at Memorial Hospital. Harris’ coworkers say she always provides excellent care but went out of her way for one man who wasn’t even her patient. The man’s wife was near the end of life in Hospice at Memorial Hospital. He had not been able to see or visit her since his own hospitalization. Recognizing the importance of this moment, Harris went above and beyond by personally escorting him to his wife’s side. She ensured that he had the time he needed to hold her hand, express his love and say goodbye before her passing. Harris’ compassion and selflessness in providing this extraordinary gesture of care during such a difficult time was deeply appreciated. She made a meaningful difference in this patient’s life and honored the final moments of his wife’s life.

2 nursing staff practices tied to safety risks: Study Becker's Clinical Leadership, Washington, DC; by Mariah Taylor; 4/3/25 Washington, D.C.-based George Washington University and Premier researchers found overreliance on agency nurses and nurse overtime was associated with lower patient safety. The study, published April 2 in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data on quality measures for pressure ulcers and nurse staff overtime and agency use from 70 U.S. hospitals from January 2019 through December 2022. Researchers found that nearly half of the hospitals in the study utilized more nurse overtime and agency hours than was safe. The average hours exceeding safe thresholds for agency staff reached 140% and 63.6% for nurse overtime. Overuse of agency nurses and overtime hours was associated with increased rates of pressure ulcers. [Continue reading ...]

Strong social connections improve older adults’ well-being regardless of setting, study finds McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Donna Shryer; 4/7/25 Social connections, trust in others in their community and community cohesion significantly improve elderly well-being whether seniors live at home or in nursing facilities, according to a new comparative study published in BMC Public Health. However, researchers found that nursing home residents generally reported lower subjective well-being compared to their community-dwelling counterparts, even after accounting for health status and demographic factors. ... According to the authors, these findings “indicate the necessity for tailored interventions that address the unique needs of each care environment to promote healthier aging experiences. [Continue reading ...]

Jackson County nurse braves floodwaters to reach isolated hospice patient Fox 56, Jackson County, KY; by Corey Elam; 4/4/25 When deadly flooding cut off access and phone service for a Jackson County hospice patient on Friday [4/4/25], a healthcare worker teamed up with emergency management teams to care for her patient. According to Hospice Care Plus, after finding out her patient was isolated and couldn’t be reached by phone, Nurse Makale Fox worked with Jackson County Emergency Management (JCEM) to find a way to get to her. “With the support of Jackson County Emergency Management, Makale ... was able to safely navigate through the flooded area and reach her patient, ensuring they received the comfort and care they deserved,” Hospice Care Plus wrote. The hospice care nonprofit thanked Makale for her unwavering commitment, as well as JCEM for making it possible for her to get to her patient. [Continue for photos and more ...]

Executive producer Bradley Cooper's film Caregiving to premiere on PBS for nationwide broadcast June 24, streaming begins May 27ABC WHTM-27, Harrisburg, PA; 3/20/25 PBS and WETA Washington, DC, today announced that Caregiving, the documentary created with executive producer Bradley Cooper highlighting the challenges and triumphs of caregiving in America, will premiere Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), and on the PBS YouTube Channel. Caregiving will be available to stream on PBS.org and the PBS App beginning Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Award-winning actress Uzo Aduba (The Residence, Painkiller, Orange is the New Black) was also announced as the film's narrator, bringing her own experience as a caregiver for her mother to the project. The two-hour documentary is centered on the personal experiences of caregivers providing for loved ones, and the challenges and triumph they face each day. These stories are interwoven with the broader context of the cultural and economic conditions in the U.S., leading to a care system tipping into crisis. [Continue reading ... including "Bradley Cooper Invites the Public to Share Their Caregiving Story]

Health care system adaptation and resilience during the wildfire crisisJAMA Network; by Attila J. Hertelendy, PhD, Jeremy Maggin, MD, MS, and Gregory Ciottone, MD; 3/19/25 ... Within a span of hours, the Palisades and Eaton fires, propelled by record-breaking Santa Ana winds reaching 150 miles per hour, consumed more than 37,000 acres, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and claimed 29 lives. All told, greater than 186,000 residents were placed under evacuation orders. ... The experience in Los Angeles County demonstrates the value of maintaining dual-purpose resources: facilities and personnel who can transition between routine operations and emergency response functions. This approach is exemplified by Kaiser Permanente’s successful deployment of mobile health vehicles and the use of clinically trained administrative leaders in direct patient care roles during crisis events. Key elements of successful resource mobilization include:

Revamped tool can reliably assess pain symptoms in dementia patients: researchers McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Zee Johnson; 3/17/25 ... A team of researchers reconstructed the End-of-Life Dementia-Comfort Assessment in Dying, or EOLD-CAD, after a multifacility study showed that caregivers could adequately and reliably address a host of pain symptoms seen in end-of-life dementia patients. ... When clinicians working in the SNFs that were part of the trials used the EOLD-CAD, they were able to detect patterns in more than 600 residents that fell into four categories: physical distress, symptoms of dying, emotional distress, and well-being. Common symptoms observed across these categories were restlessness, shortness of breath, choking, gurgling, difficulty in swallowing, fear and anxiety. ...

Flu season lingering despite springlike weather in Indiana NBC WTHR 13, Indianapolis, IN; by Dustin Grove; 3/14/25 With warmer weather moving into central Indiana, you'd think flu season would be over by now, but it's still hanging on. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates at least 33 million cases of flu nationwide, with 430,000 people hospitalized. So far, 19,000 have died. "(I think) it is more severe than it has been in the past few years. I think that with those numbers ... it really tells a story and that, especially with the 19,000 deaths, we're talking about a serious illness this year," said Dr. Darlene Lawrence. "COVID is waning, folks are having vaccine wariness." ... Even with spring weather arriving and the thought that flu season is waning, it's still not too late to get vaccinated. ... Flu is particularly dangerous for the elderly, people with chronic conditions and children, she said. ... Patients can talk to their doctor or pharmacist to help find the best vaccine for them. 

Mid-Ohio Valley emergency rooms ask for breathing room as respiratory illnesses flare up The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, Marietta, OH; by Staff Reports; 3/11/25 As flu, COVID and other respiratory illnesses increase, Memorial Health System is advising people to take preventive measures, prioritize rest at home or seek medical attention elsewhere before heading to an emergency department. "When needed, seeking care through a primary care provider or at a Physicians Care Express location can help ensure timely treatment and help keep emergency departments available for those in urgent, life-saving situations,” according to a release from the Health System. ... Emergency care should be sought for respiratory illnesses if people experience the following:

‘The weekend effect’: If you’re planning surgery, doctors say you should think twice about Fridays DailyDot.com; by Ilana Gordon; 3/7/25 Everybody’s working for the weekend, which, according to a new study, is incidentally the worst time of the week to undergo surgery. A paper published in the JAMA Network on March 4, 2025, concludes that patients experience worse outcomes during the weekends, as compared to weekdays. This phenomenon is known as the “weekend effect” and the study, which examined 429,691 patients in Ontario, Canada, determined that people whose surgeries began directly before the weekend “experienced a statistically significant increase in the composite outcome of death, complications, and readmissions at 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year.” 

‘Global problem’: Numerous factors, biases contribute to overtreatment at end of life Healio; by Josh Friedman; 2/26/25 Nathan I. Cherny, MD, has worked all around the world. At every stop — from Australia to Israel, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in between — he has seen people with cancer receive overly aggressive treatment at the end of life. ... In a review published in ESMO Open, Cherny and a cohort of multinational colleagues highlighted numerous reasons why overtreatment occurs among patients approaching the end of life, ... They listed more than 20 contributing factors, including desire for control of the cancer, denial and anger, family pressure and hope preservation. The two factors that contribute most to overtreatment are optimism bias and the “counterphobic determination to treat,” which involves clinicians having a difficult time introducing the suggestion of palliative care revert to offering further treatments, Cherny said. ... Responsibility for decisions does not need to fall solely on oncologists, Cherny added. Palliative care physicians, social workers, chaplains and others can be part of a team to assist patients with their choices. ... The number of patients who are overtreated differs at each institution. “Each institution has its own culture of care,” Cherny said. Editor's note: This article puts forth significant insights for all palliative and hospice clinicians, interdisciplinary teams, and palliative/hospice executive leaders. Apply Cherny's to your referral sources: "Each institution has its own culture of care." Apply these findings to your own palliative and hospice services. 

Hiding in plain sight: The most harmful and costly hospital-acquired infection Infection Control Today; by Dian Baker, PhD, APRN; 2/5/25 Nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP) is among the most deadly, harmful, and costly hospital-acquired infections (HAI). In a 2023 study of 284 US hospitals, NV-HAP was attributed to 1 in 14 hospital deaths with an inpatient mortality of 22.4%. NV-HAP is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, the incidence of sepsis, longer hospital stays, increased discharges to skilled nursing facilities and hospice, costs, and higher intensive care unity (ICU) utilization.

Arizona couple pleads guilty to $1.2B health care fraud Office of Public Affairs - U.S. Department of Justice; Press Release; 1/31/25 An Arizona couple pleaded guilty for causing over $1.2 billion of false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare and other health insurance programs for expensive, medically unnecessary wound grafts that were applied to elderly and terminally ill patients. According to court documents, Alexandra Gehrke, 39, and her husband, Jeffrey King, 46, both of Phoenix, conspired with others to orchestrate the massive scheme. Gehrke ran two companies, Apex Medical LLC and Viking Medical Consultants LLC, that contracted with medically untrained “sales representatives” to locate elderly patients, including hospice patients, who had wounds at any stage and order amniotic wound grafts from a specific graft distributor.