Hospice Management Advisor articles from March 2004

Hospice Management Advisor archives from March 2004

Nonprofit hospices can learn valuable lessons from for-profits: for-profit hospices provide clues to financial stability.
March 1, 2004... Any perception of how hospices are faring these days depends on whom you ask. Someone who works at a small hospice may say his or her hospice is having a tougher time than a large hospice is. Staffers at rural hospices may say they're hoeing a...

Controlling costs without violating hospice tenets: here's how to get a handle on your costs.(Hospice Trends)
March 1, 2004... Our households are prime examples of nonprofit organizations. Right? Bear with me here for a minute. We raise money through revenue from work in hopes of earning enough to cover our costs. Surplus--if there is any--is reinvested in family...

Leadership Centers aim to boost palliative care: six centers will provide hands-on training.(Hospice Trends)
March 1, 2004... The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) in New York City has launched a Palliative Care Leadership Center (PCLC) initiative to help health care organizations create programs to more effectively manage advanced chronic illness. Under...

End-of-life caregivers often don't get support: grief counseling should be available.(Hospice Trends)
March 1, 2004... In teaching health care providers how to care for patients at the end of life, many institutions forget to teach providers that they need to care for themselves as well. Physicians, nurses, and other personnel who care for dying patients...

The ethics of discontinuing home health services: consider autonomy, justice, beneficence.(Guest Column)
March 1, 2004... Over time, patients who initially are appropriate for home health services may no longer meet the agency's care criteria. For example, a patient's clinical condition may become so complex that he or she cannot be treated properly at home. ...

Fear of investigation can hinder treatment: survey finds pain management affected.(Guest Column)
March 1, 2004... Despite all of its successes in improving care for patients facing the end of life, Oregon still has not made headway in treating pain and suffering, according to researchers at the Center for Ethics in Healthcare at Oregon Health Sciences...

Many home health sentinel events are fires in the home: patient education, staff vigilance needed.(Guest Column)
March 1, 2004... Your nurses teach patients how to administer their medications, check their blood sugars, use their oxygen, care for their wounds, and, in general, take care of themselves as they deal with their illness or condition. Your nurses also review...

JCAHO modifies patient safety goals.(News From the End of Life)
March 1, 2004... An important part of any accreditation survey by the Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is the review of a home health agency's compliance with the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety...

MedPAC: no payment update for home health.(News From the End of Life)
March 1, 2004... Federal advisors were generous with recommendations to update Medicare payments to physicians and hospitals in 2005, but they showed no generosity to the home health sector. Commissioners on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) in...