The ‘Untapped’ Potential of End-of-Life Doulas

End-of-life doulas can offer additional avenues of support when it comes to communicating the value of hospice care to referral sources and the general public. Doulas can help create proactive educational touchpoints about patients’ end-of-life care options across a range of diverse populations, said Beth Klint, executive director at Goodwin Hospice. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, […]

Hospice Programs Shutter Amid Financial Strains

Financial and staffing headwinds are chipping away at hospices’ sustainability, with some providers recently pausing or closing their programs. Concerns have also mounted amid federal Medicaid cuts. Solvay Hospice House Pauses Services Duluth, Minnesota-based Solvay Hospice House has temporarily halted services due to a nursing strike. The strike was set to begin on Tuesday, with […]

Gentiva Unveils 3 Disease-Specific Hospice Programs

Gentiva has set in motion three new disease-specific hospice programs branded as Cancer Comfort Care, Dementia Comfort Care and Cardiac Comfort Care. The three new suites of services have launched in select markets with plans for national expansion. They are designed to provide tailored services to serve the unique needs of terminally ill patients suffering […]

Bristol Hospice Pioneers New Pediatric Program

Bristol Hospice has unveiled a new pediatric program dedicated to serving children with life-limiting illnesses and their families. A pilot of the Little Lights Pediatric Hospice program began in Hawaii and was unveiled on Tuesday. Bristol Hospice has plans to expand the new services in coming months across undisclosed locations. Launching a pediatric hospice service […]

Grief Literacy’s Growing Impact on Hospice Bereavement Care Models

Evolving trends related to grief literacy have trickled into the innovative bereavement approaches that hospice providers employ amid rising demand for family support. Hospices have fine-tuned how they measure quality and shape services within their bereavement programs as more is learned about the diverse ways people both understand and experience grief. Even the term “grief […]

How Empath Health Integrates End-of-Life Care into PACE

Under the Programs for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) model, patients generally do not transition to the Medicare Hospice Benefit as they near death. Consequently, Empath Health has taken pains to ensure quality end-of-life care is integrated into its program. Empath considers these services to be a key component of its “Full Life Care” […]

‘It Takes a Village’: The Need to Expand Community-Based Pediatric Palliative Care

Similar to adults, many seriously ill children prefer to die in the home versus in facility-based care settings. But several barriers are preventing greater access to goal-concordant, community-based pediatric palliative care delivery. The challenges in some ways mirror issues among adult populations such as insufficient clinical resources, caregiver burden or lagging family support in the […]

Hospices Unveil New Locations Serving Homeless, Diverse Patient Populations

A novel California-based hospice facility serving homeless populations has opened as new home-based and inpatient programs take flight across the country, including Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). YoloCares Opens Joshua House for Homeless Hospice Populations The California-based hospice provider YoloCares has opened Joshua’s House, a new facility that will provide end-of-life care […]

Bringing Palliative Care to Nursing Homes

Some palliative care providers have fueled stronger referral efforts in skilled nursing facility settings as a way to reach patients sooner in their serious illness trajectories. Measuring the impacts of these efforts has come with various challenges. Timely identification of potential palliative needs in nursing homes is critical to supporting rising demand for serious illness […]