Hospice providers nationwide are seeking and developing strategies for engaging with patients earlier in the course of their illness, as many patients come into hospice too late in the course of their disease to reap the full benefit of those services. One such strategy is to encourage early conversations about death, dying and associated health […]
Critical care nurses say they feel unprepared to provide palliative care or hospice care, according to a recent study, underscoring the need to address growing clinical staff shortages in those fields. More than 500 critical care nurses across seven intensive care units in a Virginia-based academic health center responded to a survey designed to measure […]
Hospice is in a state of flux. The industry is evolving with the changing health care landscape in terms of practice, payment models and the pervasive presence of technology. Hospices nationwide are leveraging technological advancement to improve their workflows, improve efficiency and enhance patient care. Technologies such as predictive analytics, telemedicine systems, artificial intelligence and […]
Researchers at the University of Vermont’s Conversation Lab are using machine learning to develop algorithms designed to optimize clinician-patient discussions of serious illness, palliative care and end-of-life care. The research team — led by Robert Gramling, M.D., associate professor of family medicine and the Miller Chair in Palliative Medicine at the University of Vermont’s Larner College […]
Companies are springing up nationwide offering products and services to support advance care planning, signaling that a new industry is joining forces with health care to ensure that patients receive goal-concordant care. Many of these companies offer technological solutions or frameworks to guide difficult conversations about end-of-life care and surragate decision makers should a patient […]
At a time when more health care stakeholders are recognizing the value of home-based care, a rising number of hospitals and health systems are expanding their services into the community, particularly when it comes to palliative care. Home-based palliative care could reduce societal health care costs by $103 billion nationwide within two decades, according to […]
The Ensign Group (NASDAQ: ENSG) has completed the spin-off of The Pennant Group Inc., (NASDAQ: ENSG), which separates Ensign’s home health and hospice segments from its skilled nursing, rehabilitation care services, senior living and other holdings. As part of the spin off, Ensign’s stockholders were given one share of Pennant common stock for every two […]
Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) has expanded its hospice operations with a new location in Sacramento, Calif., the company’s third de novo of 2019. The Sacramento location is Brookdale’s third de novo this year, with previous agencies opening in Detroit and Portland, Ore. The company now operates 22 locations nationwide. Patients do not have to […]
Addressing long-standing racial disparities in hospice care could save Medicare as much as $270 million annually, new research has found. Outreach to underserved communities can ensure more patients receive quality care at the end-of-life as well as open untapped markets to hospice providers. “We all know the quality of life benefits but seeing the economic […]
The availability of hospital-based palliative programs is growing nationwide, though some regions remain underserved according to new research by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC). Patients in the northeastern United States who suffer from serious illness have significantly greater access to palliative care programs that individuals in other parts of the country. Currently 72% […]