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The current focus in federal health policy on coordinating patients' health care throughout the entire continuum of care has resulted in promotion of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), Medical Homes, and Integrated Delivery Networks.
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Medicaid patients facing serious or life-threatening illnesses incurred $6,900 less in hospital costs if they received palliative care, compared with a similar group of patients who received usual care, according to a new study.
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Although there are many different ways to present information to reporters and editors to obtain media coverage, the key to each of them is to know your audience, according to experts interviewed by Hospice Management Advisor.
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This is the first of a two-part series that looks at effective media relations. This month, we look at proven strategies that result in media coverage of hospice events, services, and announcements. Next month, tips and strategies for handling media relations during a crisis are described.
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Discussing and documenting patients' preferences for care at the end of life does not cause them any harm, contrary to recent claims. A new study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that patients who talk with their physicians about end-of-life care and have an advance directive in their medical record have similar survival rates as patients who do not have these discussions and documents.
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Successful partnerships in health care occur when both organizations have the same high standards of care and philosophy. It is also important to stay in touch with your community and understand what information they want and need to make good decisions about care, points out Flint Besecker, chief executive officer of the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care in Cheektowaga, NY.
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Understanding your own cultural beliefs and biases about pain is an important first step in accurately assessing a hospice patient's pain levels, says Mary Curry Narayan, MSN, RN, HHCNS-BC, a clinical education and transcultural nurse specialist and owner, Narayan Associates in Vienna, VA and author of "Culture's Effects on Pain Assessment and Management."
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All of the accountable care principles that are integrated into the Affordable Care Act (ACA) require a clinical approach to the sickest, most complex, and costliest patients, says Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, because they all begin to move the system away from the fee-for-service model.
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Bilingual staff, cultural diversity education, and community presentations designed for specific populations are efforts that hospices throughout the country have implemented to increase access and improve care to hospice patients of all backgrounds.
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Although implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) improve survival in patients at risk for recurrent, sustained ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation, the device can add to a patient's discomfort at the end of life.
