Literature Review

Agrace opens western Wisconsin office in La Crosse WisBusiness, La Crosse, WI; Press Release; 7/16/25 Agrace continues its rapid growth across the state of Wisconsin with the opening of a new office in La Crosse, a western-Wisconsin city of 52,000 located along the Mississippi River. Since its founding in Madison, Wis., in 1978, Agrace has provided exceptional care for the state’s residents who are in the final months of life. The new Agrace location gives residents of La Crosse County greater choice for high-quality, in-home hospice care. County residents can enroll with Wisconsin’s largest nonprofit hospice to receive hospice care that comes to them where they live—in private homes, long-term care facilities or any other place they call home.

Hosparus Health plans to create end-of-life care center Spectrum News 1, Louisville/Lexington, KY; by Destinee Flowers; 7/16/25 Plans for Louisville’s first inpatient, standalone hospice care center are underway, as a part of Hosparus Health’s ongoing efforts to provide comfortable end-of-life care for seniors and their loved ones. ...  Tawanda Owsley, Hosparus Health chief development and marketing officer [described], "We will have a 21-bed, 10,000-square-foot unit ... [and that] the new facility will replace a traditional hospital setting with a warmer one while still providing high-level clinical care. It will have private rooms to accommodate family members, bathrooms in each care room, a chapel, kitchen, children’s room and an outdoor garden area. “[Our] healing garden will be a pathway from our inpatient care center to our grief counseling center," she said. ... This end-of-life care center is the third project in Hosparus Health’s “Places of Compassion” initiative, an action to modernize hospice care in anticipation of the aging Baby Boomer population.

With new facility, Mourning Dove Grief Care expands help for survivors of loss Oil City News, Casper, WY; by Dan Cepe; 7/16/25 Death can be natural, or it can be cruel and unexpected. It is, however, an inevitable part of the human experience that can affect survivors in countless ways possibly for the remainder of their lives. ... Mourning Dove Grief Care, a service by Central Wyoming Hospice & Transitions, aims to provide that help to members of the community.  ... The [new] facility will allow anyone in the community suffering from loss to walk in and schedule appointments or join a support group, whether they’ve gone through Hospice or not. The program itself started when Hospice noted the need for grief care in the community, particularly for people suffering from sudden losses. “Interestingly enough, we found that even therapists and counselors were referring to us when they had clients dealing with loss,” she said. 

The leadership norms CEOs are breaking Becker's Hospital Review; by Kristin Kuchno; 7/2/25 From rejecting strict hierarchies to forging unconventional partnerships, hospital and health system CEOs are challenging long-held leadership norms to build stronger, more responsive organizations. ... Here, six healthcare CEOs share the norms they have intentionally moved past — and what their teams have gained in the process.

Reimagining hospice in an AI world: In a digital age, how should technology & humanity coexist?HomeCare; by Michelle Cone; 6/3/25Technology is transforming home-based care, but not at the expense of the human touch. As the industry embraces tools like telehealth, remote monitoring and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered care planning, the goal isn’t to replace caregivers but to support them. These innovations boost efficiency and communication, but the heart of hospice—real connection, empathy and human presence—still drives care during what is often a deeply emotional time for families.

CMS launches new model to target wasteful, inappropriate services in original Medicare CMS Newsroom; 6/27/25 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing a new Innovation Center model aimed at helping ensure people with Original Medicare receive safe, effective, and necessary care. Through the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model, CMS will partner with companies specializing in enhanced technologies to test ways to provide an improved and expedited prior authorization process relative to Original Medicare’s existing processes, helping patients and providers avoid unnecessary or inappropriate care and safeguarding federal taxpayer dollars. This model builds on other changes being made to prior authorization as announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CMS on [6/23].

HOPE Tool Anxiety, Part II: From planning to practice Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast by Melissa Calkins; 6/30/25The countdown has begun. With October 1 on the horizon, hospice teams across the country are deep into training and testing—but preparation alone won’t guarantee success. The shift to HOPE isn’t just operational; it’s cultural. And real readiness goes far beyond timelines and task completion. It demands that every clinician, across every shift and care setting, understands what’s changing and feels confident in how to respond. This is the critical moment when planning must translate into practice—because once HOPE is live, the margin for error disappears.

Hospice: Relatable language, cultural humility key to grow rural utilizationHome Health Line; by MaryKent Wolff; 6/18/25 Agencies in rural communities that make information about their care more accessible to community members who may be isolated or lack trust in health care services could see both increased hospice utilization and patient engagement. [Subscription required for full access.]

The Family CNA Model: Supporting families and improving care for children with medical complexity Mondaq; by Stephanie Anthony, Alixandra Gould, Blair Cantfil, and Jessica Lyons; 6/16/25 Children with medical complexity represent less than 1% of all children in the U.S., but have significant, specialized, and long-term health care needs, accounting for one-third of pediatrics costs in the U.S. ... The Family CNA model trains and reimburses family members—including parents, guardians, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents—to provide certain types of home care for children with medical complexity that would otherwise be provided by a registered nurse (RN), a licensed practical nurse (LPN), or a non-family CNA. This care includes low acuity in-home nursing tasks, such as medication administration, gastronomy tube (G-tube) care, or catheter care. Family CNAs are licensed or certified health care professionals that work in concert with other providers on a child's care team, including RNs and LPNs who provide supervision and perform high-acuity tasks, to support their child's medical needs and activities of daily living at home. The unique benefits of the Family CNA model include: ... [Click on the title's link.]

Empath revamping physical, digital workspace for improved employee experience Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/16/25 ... [Empath is updating] its physical locations to enhance the workspace for employees. “Some of this workspace design that we’re doing is innovative. We’ve invested in common workplace environments. We have quiet rooms, where people can go and focus on rest, relaxation and ease in the middle of the day. We leave your laptops, leave your phones out of that room,” Fleece told Hospice News. “We’ve invested in common kitchen areas and gathering places that are like a workplace cafe, with coffee, lounge chairs, TVs and things like that, so people can get together and socialize while they are in the office.” Florida-based Empath Health is the parent company of 17 affiliates and four philanthropic foundations. The organization provides care to more than 81,000 patients annually. 

Inspiration for nursing home leaders: Finding empathy, expertise on the ground and in the airMcKnights Long-Term Care News; by Kimberly Marselas; 6/11/25 In the search for creative strategies, nursing home leaders can’t look just to their own peers. Inspiration is everywhere, as several executives recently told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. Rhonda Dempsey RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Trilogy Health Services, serves in a clinically oriented role, but she says when she wants to better understand the hospitality side of the business, she looks to emulate Marriott, owner of the world’s most hotel beds. “I’m inspired by leaders who prioritize empathy and create cultures that value employees as much as customers,” she told McKnight’s. “Those who focus on purpose-driven leadership and foster environments of inclusion and continuous learning stand out."Editor's Note: The words "hospice" and "hotel" share the same root words "hospes" and "hospitium," meaning "hospitality, host, guest, restful lodging for travelers.

Quality of life while dying: Cutting edge hospice center opening in Colorado Springs NBC KOAA-5, Colorado Springs, CO; by Bill Folsom; 6/10/25 A major improvement to hospice care is coming to Colorado Springs. “This facility really does meet a need that is not met any other way,” said Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care, President Dawn Darvalics. Over the next couple of weeks the non-profit Pikes Peak Hospice is opening the only dedicated hospice inpatient care center in Colorado Springs. ... “Early in 2017 my wife Sarah was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, ...” said Pikes Peak Hospice Foundation, Board of Trustees Chair, Michael Healy. ... He says his family would have benefited from this new cutting-edge facility. It goes beyond medicine. It includes things like gardens, homey gathering spaces, an area dedicated to veteran support, a chapel, a place for kids, and a family style kitchen. ... Plaques around the building show the many donors helping raise the $8.5 million goal the Pikes Peak Hospice Foundation is still working to complete.

Bayada lays off 10% of headquarters staff, citing reimbursement challenges Home Health Care News; by Joyce Famakinwa; 6/9/25 Bayada Home Health Care — one of the largest U.S. providers of home-based care — has reduced its headquarters staff by 10%, or roughly 100 jobs. The company stated that the layoffs are the result of operating in a difficult reimbursement environment. “While Bayada is stable, strong and growing, we operate in a challenging environment where the costs of providing care are growing faster than the ability of governments and insurance companies to pay for that care,” the company said in a statement. ... Bayada provides home health, home care, hospice and behavioral health care services in 23 states, as well as in several other countries.