Palliative Care Providers Build Stronger Referral Relationships to Improve Breast Cancer Patient Outcomes

Reaching breast cancer patients with varying needs can be a challenging feat for palliative care providers. Their referral strategies often hinge on how palliative services can help improve outcomes. Palliative care providers help address patients’ various nonmedical, emotional, caregiver and social determinants of health needs, a key point to highlight when seeking to build stronger […]

Coalition ‘Strongly Urges’ Congress to Immortalize Hospice Telehealth Flexibilities

A coalition of hospice, home health and palliative care organizations has called on Congress to extend temporary telehealth flexibilities implemented during the pandemic. Doing so would help ensure continued access to quality care among vulnerable patient populations, according to the organizations. A group of 39 organizations recently penned a letter urging congressional leaders to reconsider […]

Fostering Palliative Care-Pain Medicine Specialist Coordination

Collaborations between palliative care specialists and pain medicine physicians can help optimize care for seriously ill patients, new research has found. Chronic pain can be debilitating and often accompanies serious conditions that can warrant palliative care, such as cancer. Between 2019 and 2021, the prevalence of chronic pain among adults nationwide ranged from 20.5% to […]

How Palliative Care Is Changing in Today’s Health Care Environment

As the palliative care field continues to grow and transform, understanding the current trends, outlook, relevant challenges and necessary skills for future leaders is critical. Two significant trends impacting the field of palliative care currently, according to experts, are the expansion of services and the integration of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). Dr. Vicki Jackson, […]

Psychological Trauma Can Worsen Symptom Burden at End-of-Life

Recent research has found that traumatic experiences can lead to increased pain and symptom burden at the end of life, along with a greater likelihood of emotional suffering and isolation. Collective trauma experiences have been associated with higher instances of pain and dyspnea among more than half of seniors nationwide, a recent study found, published […]

Breaking the Silence: The Mounting Need for Trauma-Informed Hospice Care

Traumatized and abused hospice patients and providers often experience an array of lingering physical, emotional and psychological effects that can fall into a silent abyss of unmet needs. Breaking down the barriers to stronger trauma-informed end-of-life care requires heightened awareness, legislative action and improved care delivery approaches. Some hospice providers have training and education around […]

Pediatric Palliative Care: The Forces Impeding Quality

Pediatric palliative care providers have room for improvement when it comes to understanding the factors that can impact health care decisions among seriously ill young adults and adolescents. A diverse range of social, emotional and psychological developmental factors can complicate the ability of pediatric palliative providers to navigate advance care planning conversations and deliver goal-concordant […]

Most Rural Regions Lack Palliative Care Specialists

The lion’s share of palliative care physicians dwell in more densely populated communities, creating disparities among the rural seriously ill population. Recent research has found that more than 90% of board certified palliative physicians and nurse practitioners nationwide were located in metropolitan and urban areas in 2022. Only 10% of these palliative clinicians were in […]

Researchers Uncover Widespread Disparities Affecting Rural Hospice Caregivers

Lagging supportive services around social determinants of health and limited access to hospice and palliative care are driving disparities among rural family caregivers. Rural caregivers are more vulnerable to adverse emotional health impacts than others due to their remote locations, researcher Arienne Patano, PhD student at Michigan State University, said at the American Academy of […]

Challenges in Hospice Care for Terminal Anorexia Patients

Hospice providers navigate various challenges when addressing unmet needs and goals of care among patients with severe enduring anorexia nervosa. Also referred to as terminal anorexia, the diagnosis and care for this condition can be a controversial topic to both define and address, according to Dr. Ingrid Berg, palliative medicine physician at CHI Health, an […]