Though labor shortages persist, glimmers of hope are on the horizon. Employment in the home-based care sector rose above pre-pandemic levels in 2023, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). The U.S. Department of Commerce defines this sector to include hospices, home health agencies, private duty, pediatric agencies and other providers of care in […]
Category: Operations
Care coordination and quality data will be engines for hospice referral growth. Hospices saw census volumes drop during the COVID-19 public health emergency as facilities nationwide restricted access to patients amid mandated state closures. Providers often turned to electronic communications to reach patients in facility- and community-based settings alike. Adaptability has been among the keys […]
Documentation errors and a fragmented health system pose the greatest risks for adverse drug events among hospices. Evaluating these risks involves having solid medication reconciliation processes in place — both at the time of a patient’s admission and throughout their end-of life care experience, according to Mary Lynn McPherson, professor and executive program director of […]
Senior living and health care services operator The Dover Companies has launched a home health and hospice business branded as Dover Health. The fledgling company pledges to offer patients a suite of wraparound services, including for the terminally ill, to support quality of life and aging in place. Its parent organization also operates senior living, […]
Hospices, in aggregate, are showing improvement on the quality measure for visits in the last days of life. The number of registered nurse and social worker visits during a patient’s final week is one of the seven quality measures that CMS uses to evaluate providers. In Calendar Year 2021, the share of hospice care days […]
In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! Ohio’s Hospice is among the providers experiencing staffing pressures amid lagging reimbursement rates and rising inflation. Inflation, wage hikes and lagging reimbursement are among the main forces pressurizing hospice workforces, […]
In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! Spiritual hospice care providers are an important link to building bridges of access and trust among underserved African American populations. Spirituality plays a key role in end-of-life decisions among African […]
Arizona-based Phoenix Children’s Hospital has developed a pediatric hospice and palliative care fellowship program that is positively impacting access to these services. An important piece of pediatric palliative clinical education involves developing a deep level of communication skills to help families navigate complicated decision making around serious illness care, according to Dr. Tressia Shaw, palliative […]
In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! Coastal Hospice & Palliative Care recently began exploring ways to improve clinical outcomes during the last days of life, an important quality measure in end-of-life care. Established in 1980, Maryland-based […]
In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! St. Croix Hospice has opened a de novo in the Clarinda, Iowa, community. As part of its growth strategy, St. Croix Hospice often looks for markets in which hospice utilization […]