Hospice Management Advisor Archives – December 1, 2010
December 1, 2010
View Archives Issues
-
In this economy, you can't afford to lose good hospice employees
This is the first of a two-part series that examines strategies for employee retention. This month we look at the importance of patient satisfaction surveys and exit interviews. -
Anonymous surveys bring out the truth
Asking employees what they think of their employer can be tricky. To obtain truthful answers, you want the survey to be anonymous, and one way to ensure anonymity is to use an outside source to conduct the survey, says Moses Altsech, PhD, founder of Marketing Hospice, a Madison, WI-based marketing consulting service. -
Palliative care team, case managers help
When Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City began looking at implementing palliative care and end-of-life services, the case management department was the appropriate place to start, says Anita Bell, RN, MEd CHPN, palliative care coordinator at the 508-bed facility. -
EOL care patterns shift for heart failure patients
Health care in the last six months of life has become progressively more expensive for patients with heart failure among Medicare beneficiaries in the United States and older adults in Canada, with a high rate of hospitalizations in the final six months of life in both countries, according to two reports posted online. The reports will be published in the Feb. 14, 2011, print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. -
Palliative care essential for patients at end of life
"Countries around the world expend substantial resources to relieve the suffering caused by the burden of disease," writes Rosemary Gibson, MSc, in an editorial accompanying three articles examining health care at the end of life posted online that will be published in the Feb. 14, 2011, print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. -
Men dying of prostate cancer referred too late
More than half of men dying of prostate cancer use hospice care, which is a significant increase over the last two decades; however, most wait too long to enroll so they can't take full advantage of the palliative care that could make their deaths easier, a study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found. -
Ethical decision making reviewed with EOL care
In a review article published in the October issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Mayo Clinic physicians differentiate the ethical and legal permissibility of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments and accepted comfort measures, specifically palliative sedation, from that of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. -
Peds palliative care nurses have role at end of life
Despite great advances in cure rates, some children with cancer die each year. While pediatric oncology nurses have expertise in caring for children receiving treatment for cancer, during difficult times, including at end of life, many nurses are more comfortable "doing for" the child and their family than "being with" them. -
Outcomes of EOL talks seem to differ by race
While both black patients and white patients appear to benefit from end of life discussions with their physician, black patients are less likely to experience end-of-life care that accurately reflects their preferences, according to a report in the Sept. 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine -
Healthcare costs rise for cancer patients
Cancer patients who stop hospice care are far more likely to use expensive medical services, such as emergency care and hospitalization. Use of these services leads to healthcare costs that are nearly five times higher for patients who disenroll from hospice care compared to patients who remain in hospice, according to a study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology. -
Record number of patients receive hospice care
An estimated 41.6% of all people who died in the United States last year were under the care of a hospice program, according to the latest "Facts and Figures: Hospice Care in America" report produced by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) in Alexandria, VA. This statistic represents an increase over previous years: 38.8% in 2008 and 35% in 2007. -
Hospice program focuses on veterans
More than 680,000 or 25% of all deaths in the United States each year are veterans. A new program provided by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Department of Veterans Affairs offers hospices resources and tools to honor patients' service and address the special needs of military veterans.