Physician and entrepreneur Ryan Van Wert, M.D., co-founded Palo Alto, Calif.-based advance care planning solution developer Vynca in 2013 to create tech products to guide and document advance care planning discussions that would be easily accessible to necessary stakeholders, including patients, families and clinicians. Van Wert is also an assistant professor at Stanford University where he […]
While staring down tighter reimbursements and intensified regulatory scrutiny, hospices are becoming interested in health care system integration because of improved access, collaboration, operational support, and financial stability. Hospices and hospitals are increasingly joining forces to provide goal concordant care, reduce costs and prevent readmissions, while supporting growth for the hospice. While most people wish […]
Close to 40% of patients in a recent study received end-of-life services in an intensive care unit, contrary to their wishes as documented in Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). Researchers considered 1,818 patients suffering from serious or chronic illness who died between 2010 and 2017 in a two-hospital academic health system. Some patients were […]
Effective on-boarding practices, including training and orientation, can help stave off the impact of ongoing staffing shortages in the hospice space. Hospices nationwide are fine-tuning recruitment and retention strategies as demand for their services are rising as they continue to lose current staff, often due to retirement or burnout. More than 26% hospice leaders indicated […]
Nurses are the front line of hospice care, serving patients in their homes and other settings on a daily basis. They have their finger on the pulse of hospice. Hospice News recently sought the insights of a nurse and certified dementia practitioner about care provided in non-hospice settings such as assisted living and skilled nursing […]
About 10 miles north of downtown Dallas sits a campus of buildings, walking paths and impeccable landscaping anchored around a five-acre pond. The connection of the buildings to the natural elements of the campus evokes a sense of tranquility and respite from the bustling Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. This is the T. Boone Pickens Hospice and […]
Concerns about staffing outweigh worries about growing competition in the hospice space as well as emerging payment models that stand to transform aspects of the industry such as the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in and the Primary Care First initiatives. Hospice News in collaboration with Dallas-based tech company Homecare Homebase surveyed more than 300 industry professionals, […]
Hospices expect to see substantial growth in the assisted living setting during 2020, followed by the skilled nursing setting. Hospice News in collaboration with Dallas-based tech company Homecare Homebase surveyed more than 300 industry professionals, including owners, executive leaders, managers and staff about the movement they expect to see in the hospice space during 2020. […]
As hospices contend with industry-wide staff shortages, Susan Lysaght Hurley, director of research at Massachusetts-based hospice provider Care Dimensions, is working to transform her organization’s nurse residency program into a national model. The number of hospice and palliative care clinicians will drop precipitously during the next two decades, largely due to retirements and staff leaving […]
As the use of medicinal cannabis among hospice patients grows, researchers have identified side effects of chronic use that could lead to increased emergency room visits and hospitalizations, known as cannabis hyperemesis. This condition is characterized by cyclical vomiting and abdominal pain. If not recognized quickly it can lead to severe dehydration, acute renal failure, […]