Literature Review

20 most socially responsible hospitals, per Lown Institute Becker's Hospital Review; by Mackenzie Bean; 6/25/24 Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, N.C., is the most socially responsible acute care hospital in the U.S., according to a June 25 ranking from Lown Institute. The nonpartisan healthcare think tank assessed more than 2,700 acute care hospitals and 800 critical access hospitals nationwide across 54 metrics related to health equity, value of care and patient outcomes. ... The 20 most socially responsible acute care hospitals in the U.S., per Lown Institute:

36 hospitals, health systems cutting jobs Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Kelly Gooch; updated 6/21/24 A number of hospitals and health systems are reducing their workforces or jobs due to financial and operational challenges. Below are workforce reduction efforts or job eliminations announced this year.  June:

University Hospitals to cut more than 300 positions Modern Healthcare; by Paige Bennett; 6/19/24 University Hospitals is eliminating more than 300 positions amid challenges in the healthcare industry. The health system announced Wednesday, June 19, that it was reducing its leadership structure by more than 10% as part of an organizational reset. The move comes at a time when healthcare systems across the U.S. are grappling with rising costs and labor shortages. UH Chief Operating Officer Dr. Paul Hinchey said in a phone interview with Crain’s that the cuts focused on leadership and support services, not frontline workers. Affected employees began being notified by the health system on Monday, he said. The health system said the vast majority of the cuts were non-clinical and will not impact patient care. The move “complements a plan over the past three years to increase efficiency, consolidate service lines and close hospitals in Bedford and Richmond Heights,” according to UH. 

Private equity, consolidation divide aging services sector as multi-agency effort gets underwayMcKnight's Long-Term Care News; by Kimberly Marselas, Kimberly Bonvissuto; 6/10/24While some aging services providers last week warned that more scrutiny of healthcare consolidation and rules that seek to limit it further could create “unintended consequences,” others encouraged three federal agencies to proceed with promised work on the issue. Private equity ownership is associated with increases in short-term mortality of Medicare patients, as well as declines in other quality measures of patient well-being, and reductions in staffing, services, supplies, or equipment, said LeadingAge, in comments authored by Jonathan Lips, vice president of Legal Affairs, citing research. They also acknowledged that another study using the government’s own data showed PE’s stake in the skilled nursing sector had declined to just 5% by 2022. Further research showed that slowdown persisted into 2023.

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. 

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.]

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.

These MD architects want to redesign your hospital Medscape; by Amanda Loudin; 6/5/24Little known fact: Florence Nightingale might have been the most famous clinician to notice and openly comment on the role of hospital design in patient care. In her now well-known writings on nursing, Nightingale advocated for "open windows to maximize light and ventilation," among other elements. Today, a growing group of physician-designers are paying attention to many such details — windows in patient rooms included. Their goal: To build hospitals and medical facilities where design can enhance patient and clinician well-being. ...

Saint Therese to transition its New Hope Senior Community to new ownership Big Country Homepage; by Accesswire; 6/4/24 After years of intensive research and deliberation about the future of its New Hope senior living community, aging services provider Saint Therese today announced it is transitioning Saint Therese of New Hope [Minn.] to new ownership, supported by senior care provider Compass Healthcare. The transition is expected to be final on August 1, 2024 and the name will change to Woodlake Care Center and Woodlake Residences. ... Abbott said the Saint Therese organization remains dedicated to the senior care and services industry, has no future plans to transition any of its other communities and remains focused on expanding the mission and ministry in the communities in which we are blessed to serve. Saint Therese currently has three locations in the Twin Cities metro, in Brooklyn Park, Woodbury, a new community opening in the fall in Corcoran, a hospice and palliative care home in Shoreview and a community in Monroe, Mich. 

Dr. Marc Boom confronts the new dynamics of CEO burnoutBecker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 5/23/24While the topic of burnout among hospital CEOs is not new, there are new dynamics in play to consider as part of the discussion. Those in the role today encounter increased pressures ranging from financial to operational. "There are new pressures that have emerged in the healthcare delivery world - everything from reimbursement cuts and escalating drug and supply costs, and labor expenses - that have created a lot of financial headwinds for organizations," said Scott Sette, a partner with Chicago-based executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. "Plus, regulatory changes have forced CEOs to spend more resources on compliance, cybersecurity, EMR administration." Additionally, "there have just been so many workforce challenges. ... Then you have the impact of the remote and hybrid workforce and the impact of that on organizational culture. Plus, you've got many social issues going on. Clearly, [diversity, equity and inclusion] continues to be top of mind, but also you've got political unrest. You have mass shootings. You have gender-affirming care and other social issues that organizations have to address. And all of these topics [have] created even more pressures for hospitals and health systems to deal with, in addition to delivering high-quality care and delivering customer-centric experiences. There is a lot for CEOs to deal with on a daily basis." Marc Boom, MD, has served as president and CEO of Houston Methodist, an eight-hospital system with more than 32,000 employees, since 2012. He acknowledged these pressures in a recent interview with Becker's. He also discussed the prevalence of burnout and shared advice for how leaders can reduce the potential for it.

Improving nursing home care goes beyond helping nursesMcKnight's Long-Term Care News; by Kristen Fischer; 5/30/24An editorial published Monday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society [Quality of care for older adults in nursing homes: It begins with registered nurses but does not end there!] points out flaws in moves to improve nursing home care outlined in a report published in March. Authors of the March report [RNs in nursing homes—It is not always about the numbers] shared a method to move beyond staffing numbers and optimize the workload of registered nurses. The model detailed nurse accountability, decision making, continuity of information and continuity of care. The authors shared the differences between RN work in the nursing home compared with acute care hospitals, and they also emphasized the importance of geriatric nursing knowledge.

UnitedHealth Group continues to leverage home-based care to drive value-based strategy Home Health Care News; by Robert Holly; 5/30/24 Value-based care has long been a core focus for UnitedHealth Group and its Optum arm. Recently, however, the health care giant has started to view value-based care as a sustainable business model that it can lean into to drive growth across its operations. ... “Although it’s a topic that has been talked about for probably 30 years as a theme, I would say, really, only within UnitedHealth Group and Optum are you seeing value-based care now on a scale and presence [that] allows it to operate truly as a business model,” UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said Wednesday, speaking at an investor conference.

Record numbers of nursing homes are shutting down in New EnglandBoston.com; by Beth Treffeisen; 5/30/24[Personal story about multiple moves, due to shutdowns:] ... Her dad had to spend his entire life savings on care, about $400,000. “And now he’s being treated like this,” Jones said. “He gets moved around, shuffled around like an object.” The nursing home closures affect not only the patients, like Jones’s father, but also the larger health care system and local communities they serve. Experts in the field say the loss of long-term care facility beds has led to backups in emergency rooms, and family members are leaving the workforce to care for the elderly or sick. ... According to a Boston Federal Reserve report, there were 150 less nursing facilities in New England at the end of fiscal year 2023 than there were at the beginning of 2010, a 15 percent decrease.