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A hospice nurse in Colorado was arrested in July for using a patient's name to obtain pain medication. The nurse also was charged in November for using a physician's name along with patient names to forge prescriptions for more than 4,000 pain pills.
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While the details of health care reform, and the outcome of debates and votes, were uncertain at press time, a review of the two health care reform bills under debate do point out two areas that home health and hospice agencies can look ahead to implement.
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More than 35% (35.4%) of patients served by hospices in 2008 died or were discharged in seven days or less, reports the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). This reflects a 4.6% increase from 2007, when 30.8% of patients had what is considered a short hospice experience.
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Chronic pain is experienced by as many as two out of three older adults. Now, a new study finds that pain may be more hazardous than previously thought, contributing to an increased risk of falls in adults over age 70. The findings appear in the Nov. 25 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
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Add guitars and other musical instruments to the tools caregivers can use to help patients in hospice care. That's what University of Alabama (UA) senior Sarah Pitts found when she brought her music therapy skills to patients in Hospice of West Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
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There are two ways that the staff at Agape Hospice have identified cases of medication diversion by employees. One involved patients reporting less medication in the bottle than listed on the label. Another involved a nursing home hospice patient who was receiving pain medication on an as-needed basis but was running out of pills before the nurse's next visit.
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A family member's statement that "Dad's pain is really helped by methadone rather than hydrocodone," should serve as a red flag for any hospice nurse, says Debbie Williams, RN, CHPC, administrator of Agape Hospice in Minden, LA. Any time a family member or friend of the patient is naming specific drugs to bring into the house, you should be suspicious of drug diversion, she says.
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The Joint Commission H1N1 forum, a web-based discussion forum, is designed to allow health care organizations to exchange information about the pandemic, innovative solutions, and suggestions that can help other organizations manage patient care during the H1N1 pandemic more effectively.
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More than 550,000 individuals give more than 2.5 million hours of service as trained hospice volunteers each year, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).
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At the most recent annual conference of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, advanced care directives, access to investigational drugs, and parental nonconsent to medical treatment were considered some of the top legal developments in bioethics in 2009.
