Hospice Management Advisor Archives – March 1, 2003
March 1, 2003
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Implement a policy for discharging violent patients, but be careful
If you ask a group of home health care workers and volunteers if theyve ever felt threatened or uncomfortable when paying a visit to a clients home, its likely that each would have a story to tell. -
Protecting community workers against violence
For many occupations, workplace violence represents a serious occupational risk. Acts such as physical assault or the threat of physical assault are considered workplace violence. The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Acts General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a safe and healthful working environment for all workers covered by the OSH Act of 1970. -
CA taking steps to improve access, care
Like most states, California does not stand out as a champion of end-of-life care. Public policy, health care traditions, and social attitudes have prevented the states terminally ill patients from gaining access to palliative care and end-of-life care as a whole. -
Hospice Trends: Intensive care is next frontier for hospices
For many hospice professionals, dying in an intensive care unit (ICU) may seem like the antithesis of the gentle, peaceful death experience they try to facilitate every day for terminally ill patients and their families. Other than a vague sense that intensive care for dying patients might be futile and even wasteful -- or that those patients should have been referred to hospice care instead -- hospice professionals may not pay much attention to what goes on in the ICU, even within their own health systems. -
Defining the family at the end of life
Unlike other specialties in health care, family members as well as the patient are considered clients for the hospice team. Therefore, the specialized services available from hospice clinicians and volunteers are intended to address the physical, spiritual, social, cognitive, and emotional needs of the entire family system. Yet, understanding the family dynamic and how it should influence care can be a challenge. -
Get pre-authorizations from managed care organizations
Home care providers still struggle to obtain authorizations from managed care organizations (MCOs) for medically necessary and appropriate care. MCOs may bear the risk of any legal liability associated with failure to provide medically necessary and appropriate care, especially when provider protest such adverse payment decisions.