Anxieties abound among hospice providers regarding a potential deluge of COVID-19 cases as states begin to reduce social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions, even as many hope for easier access to patients in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Most U.S. states are to varying degrees lifting public safety measures such as stay-at-home orders, business closures […]
Many hospice leaders believe that states’ gradual relaxation of COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions will positively impact their businesses, despite concerns about increased risks to staff. Providers expect that increased access to patients living in facilities will drive clinical and financial improvement. More than half of hospice provider respondents to a Hospice News reader survey indicated that […]
Hospices routinely provide bereavement care to family members after a patient reaches the end of life, but increasingly during the COVID-19 pandemic they are seeing more people afflicted with disenfranchised grief. Disenfranchised grief is a form of bereavement that is not acknowledged as legitimate by others or even by the families themselves. Research indicates that […]
Hospices nationwide are designating specific interdisciplinary clinicians who work exclusively with COVID-positive patients to reduce risk to the rest of their staff and vulnerable patient populations. Selecting staff to serve on dedicated COVID teams has involved several considerations and additional measures as hospices work to minimize exposure. “The communities we serve in general are seeing […]
Hospice provider VITAS Healthcare will launch a national grief helpline that will offer support from the company’s bereavement care professionals and social workers to those who are grieving a loved one during the novel coronavirus outbreak. VITAS is a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE). The service, set to launch on May 26, will likewise […]
Nurses and clinicians have been on the frontlines of hospice care during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the unsung heroes of hospice are those who are working behind the scenes in nonclinical roles to help keep the operational fires burning. Health care organizations nationwide — and the communities they serve — are recognizing frontline staff for […]
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN) and the National Hospice Cooperative (NHC) have created a joint venture that promises to further scale their regional partnership model to nonprofit hospices nationwide. TCN and NHC are collaborative networks of affiliated hospice and palliative care providers that partner to share best practices, centralize some back office functions, build more efficient […]
As stakeholders in the hospice space call on the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to permanently extend temporary telehealth flexibilities following the COVID-19 national emergency, hospice providers are increasingly looking ahead to potential long-term impacts. Hospice organizations have much to consider as the future of telehealth post-COVID drives rising demand for virtual […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic puts new pressures on hospice staff, providers are reevaluating and revising their policies to accommodate and maintain their workforce. Hospices nationwide have restructured and adapted telecommuting policies to transition employees into working remotely from home, easing some of the childcare issues for staff. Reallocating vulnerable or exposed staff to non-patient facing […]
The ongoing social isolation and distancing measures to reduce spread of the coronavirus pandemic has challenged a vital element of social and psychosocial services in the realm of hospice care. As the outbreak continues impacting communities throughout the nation, hospice social workers have become adaptive to continue serving patients and families in need. At the […]