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Poor awareness, misunderstanding hinder palliative care for heart failure

A lack of awareness among heart failure patients prevents them accessing palliative care services during the late stages of their disease, indicate US study findings.

2 Jan 2013

Roundup: Calif. Report sets 10-year health goals; Conn. hospitals plead to stop cuts; Colo. lawmaker wants state universal health care on ballot

With the state facing rising medical costs and increasing rates of chronic disease, California health leaders issued a report Wednesday setting specific health targets to meet by 2022. The state's goals include reducing smoking rates, increasing vaccinations among children and improving depression screening and treatment. The report also describes ways to improve end-of-life care, by expanding palliative care at hospitals and hospice programs at home.

20 Dec 2012

Marketplace changes: Hospitals work on insurance arms; Walgreen eyes hospice business

A growing number of hospital systems are moving to start their own insurance plans, aiming to broaden their roles and prepare for the changes coming under the federal health-care overhaul. Piedmont Healthcare and WellStar Health System, both in the Atlanta area, are set to announce a jointly owned insurance arm, with the goal of marketing coverage to employers and Medicare recipients in 2014.

18 Dec 2012

Hospice use driven by finance rather than patient eligibility

Barriers to hospice care in the USA could be more to do with individual hospices' enrollment policies than with patients’ true eligibility, indicate study findings.

12 Dec 2012

Bay Bridge Capital Partners acquires Plum Healthcare Group

GI Partners ("GI"), a leading mid-market private equity firm, announced today the sale of its portfolio company, Plum Healthcare Group, LLC ("Plum"), one of the fastest growing companies in healthcare services, to Bay Bridge Capital Partners ("Bay Bridge"). The sale of Plum generated a return of approximately three times invested capital for limited partners in GI Partners Fund II L.P.

10 Dec 2012

Study: Medicare pay may cause hospices to discourage enrollment of high-cost patients

Many hospices may be discouraging enrollment for the highest cost treatments, and Medicare's way of paying them may be part of the problem, a new study finds.

5 Dec 2012

Study calls for reform of Medicare reimbursement rates and hospice eligibility requirements

In the first national survey of enrollment policies at hospices, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Yale University have found that the vast majority of hospices in the United States have at least one enrollment policy that could restrict access for terminally ill Medicare patients with high-cost medical needs.

5 Dec 2012

Hospice Compassus publicly reveals patient quality data

Hospice Compassus, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that operates a nationwide network of hospice programs, has become the first hospice provider in the U.S. to publicly reveal patient quality data.

3 Dec 2012

McHenry County Caregivers Conference to be held on April 6, 2013

McHenry County Caregivers Conference, Saturday, April 6, 2013, presented by Elderwerks has pulled together professionals, care agencies and service organizations who help relieve and assist the caregiver.

3 Dec 2012

Hospice patients accepting of student examinations

The majority of hospice inpatients are happy to be examined by medical students, indicate the results of a UK study.

28 Nov 2012

Walden University announces recipients of six Nurses of the Year scholarships

Walden University today announced the recipients of six Nurses of the Year scholarships. The scholarships were awarded to nurses who are making a positive difference in the lives of their patients, in their organizations and to the future of nursing.

28 Nov 2012

Aging care: Hospices seek better image; New nursing home database released

People often have one regret about hospice care: that they didn't get it sooner. The hospice system has been caring for terminally ill patients and their families for decades; 42 percent of the 2.4 million Americans who died last year were under hospice care at the end. Now, hospices across the country are trying to rebrand and reposition themselves to reach patients earlier and erase the idea that turning to hospice is akin to "giving up."

20 Nov 2012

Adequate pain management at end of life is a team effort

Inadequate management of pain in patients with terminal illness and those at the end of their lives exists because of knowledge deficits and misperceptions among patients, families, and healthcare providers, indicate the results of a study involving palliative nurses.

15 Nov 2012

Two-drug combo relieves agitation first time

The majority of advanced cancer patients who experience agitation achieve control after the first dose of an antipsychotic–antiseizure combination is administered, show study results.

8 Nov 2012

Any hospice better than none at end of life

Nursing home residents with advanced dementia who receive any hospice care during the last 90 days of life receive fewer aggressive treatments and are less likely to die in hospital than their counterparts who do not receive such care, show US study results.

6 Nov 2012

Round-the-clock ICU intensivists could reduce mortality rates, length of stay

Implementing 24-hour intensivists at medical intensive care units could reduce patient mortality rates, and significantly reduce patients' length of stay, indicate study results.

5 Nov 2012

Research roundup: Lowering health costs of the poorest sick; Local variations in health spending

Olmstead County, Minn., which earlier required just restaurants to be smoke-free, enacted a law in 2007 that banned smoking in all workplaces. Researchers reported "a substantial decline in the incidence of MI from 18 months before the smoke-free restaurant law was implemented to 18 months after the comprehensive smoke-free workplace law was implemented 5 years later.

3 Nov 2012

Treatments and outcomes vary for nursing home residents who use Medicare SNF care: Study

A Medicare rule that blocks thousands of nursing home residents from receiving simultaneous reimbursement for hospice and skilled nursing facility care at the end of life may result in those residents receiving more aggressive treatment and hospitalization, according a new analysis.

3 Nov 2012

Treatment rate high at end of life for prostate cancer patients

Approximately one-third of men with castration-resistant prostate cancer receive some form of treatment in the last 3 months of life, show US study results.

1 Nov 2012

Hospice volunteers' satisfaction relies on appreciation, support

The majority of individuals involved with nine Canadian hospice volunteer programs are satisfied with their work, citing the appreciation and gratitude of patients and their families as the most satisfying aspect of volunteering, indicate study results.

31 Oct 2012