Hospice Management Advisor Archives – June 1, 2003
June 1, 2003
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Medicare reimbursement culture creates ‘biomedical gates’ to care
After more than 20 years of Medicare reimbursement for hospice care, the industry has become preoccupied by clinical indicators and local medical review polices that offer guidelines for hospice admission. Too often a prospective hospice patient is defined by clinical indicators, rather than by the psychosocial characteristics that affect the quality of ones death. -
Telehospice may be answer to staffing challenges
Like two trains steaming full-speed toward each other, the growing aging population and the continuing shortage of nurses and other providers threaten to come crashing together, derailing whatever progress hospices make toward increasing access to their services. -
Hospice Trends: ‘Back to basics’ a good way to grow your hospice
The number of terminally ill patients enrolled in Americas hospices continues to rise, now topping 700,000 per year. But growth in patient enrollment has been counterbalanced in recent years by declining lengths of stay. The net result for many hospices has been stagnating average daily census, a more telling measure of actual growth. -
Study shows disparities in perceptions of pain
Another study about how palliative care fails minorities was recently released, adding to what seems like mounting evidence that hospice and others involved in end-of-life care are failing to meet the needs of African-Americans, including understanding the cultural factors that play a role in patients perception of pain. -
Are your caregivers starting to burn out?
This is the first of a two-part series that examines family caregiver issues such as education, stress, burnout, and support. In this article, experts talk about the educational needs of family caregivers and how a home health nurse can recognize caregiver burnout. -
Ask questions: Assessing a caregiver's burnout
Paying attention to a myriad of small signs in both the caregivers and the patients behavior can alert the home health nurse to a need for intervention to prevent caregiver burnout.