Hospice Management Advisor Archives – August 1, 2010
August 1, 2010
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Would you like to reduce your weekend calls by 66%?
This is the first of a two-part series that looks at the increasing importance of volunteers to hospice programs. This month, we look at how volunteer programs can positively affect hospice outcomes with innovations such as a Tuck-in Program and attention to volunteer expertise. -
'Tuck-in' calls prepare patients for weekend
Before making her call to the patient each week, the volunteer makes sure she has a new joke to tell by checking the Internet for jokes she hasn't shared. -
Recognize volunteers' skills to enhance program
The use of volunteers to enhance hospice services has grown and will continue to grow, according to Greg Schneider, founding director of Hospice Volunteer Association in Occidental, CA. -
Violence is rising
A new Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert warns that health care providers today are being confronted with steadily increasing rates of crime, including assault, rape, and murder. -
Consortium to expand vets' palliative care
The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded the City of Hope, a biomedical research, treatment and educational institution located just outside of Los Angeles, a three-year contract to educate nurses on how to provide better palliative care for veterans with life-threatening illnesses. -
Critically ill's wishes should be doctor's orders
Living wills and advance directives often don't ensure that dying patients receive the kind of medical care they want, or don't want, to receive. -
Advance directives have evolved
When first developed in the 1970s, advance directives focused on providing specific legal instructions, such as a patient's wishes to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment in cases of terminal illness or incapacity. The documents helped physicians avoid legal problems associated with fulfilling the patient's wishes. -
POLST helps avoid unwanted hospital stay
A study evaluating the use of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) in nursing homes found that patients with a POLST are less likely to receive unwanted hospitalization and medical interventions than patients without a POLST. -
Pain med use varies in hospice care
In a study published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, researchers evaluated the use of five medication classes to determine trends in the use of pain medications. -
Marijuana derivative eyed for pain treatment blocks
A new compound similar to the active component of marijuana (cannabis) might provide effective pain relief without the mental and physical side effects of cannabis, according to a study in the July issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS). -
Instrumentation group tackles home health care
The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) has created a new home health care committee called Medical Devices and Systems in Home Care Applications to tackle home health care issues, which complements the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) initiative. -
AHC Media publication wins national competition
Healthcare Risk Management, also published by AHC Media, took first place honors in the best instructional reporting category of the Specialized Information Publishers Association's annual journalism awards announced recently.