Hospice Management Advisor articles from March 2008

Hospice Management Advisor archives from March 2008

Hospice and long-term partnerships work well with attention to details.
March 1, 2008... Hospice and long-term partnerships work well with attention to details Identify responsibilities and concerns up front (Editor's note: This month we begin a two-month look at partnerships between hospice agencies and long-term care...

Carefully select long-term care partners.
March 1, 2008... Carefully select long-term care partners Look at reputation, reg compliance Any contract with another organization requires careful attention to details, regulations, and legal issues, but hospice agencies need to pay special attention...

Address specifics of patient care up front.
March 1, 2008... Address specifics of patient care up front Checklist ensures no details missed Four years of a program focused on partnerships with long-term care facilities and contracts with 88 different facilities has taught the staff at Hospice...

Bunnies and bears help children face grief.
March 1, 2008... Bunnies and bears help children face grief Puppet show provides safe place for questions "I don't want to go to no stupid funeral." These words uttered by a key character in a puppet show convinced Penne Williams, LCSW, an instructor...

Turning 'green': Howto help the environment.
March 1, 2008... Turning 'green': Howto help the environment You can save money, involve staff Although patient care is the No. 1 priority for hospice managers and staff members, a growing number of health care employees are recognizing that their...

Tips for safe disposal of pharmaceuticals at home.
March 1, 2008... Tips for safe disposal of pharmaceuticals at home The following guidelines are recommended by the Drug and Food Administration (FDA) for disposal of medications. * Take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their...

Nurse admits stealing body parts, forging papers.
March 1, 2008... Nurse admits stealing body parts, forging papers A nurse in Philadelphia has admitted that he removed body parts from 244 corpses and then helped forge the paperwork that would allow those parts to be transplanted. Philadelphia...

Nonhospital workers and bloodborne pathogens.
March 1, 2008... Nonhospital workers and bloodborne pathogens In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health assessed the risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens among nonhospital-based...

CMS publishes new fact sheet.
March 1, 2008... CMS publishes new fact sheet The Hospice Payment System Fact Sheet, which offers providers information about the Medicare hospice benefit, is now available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Learning Network....

Medicare issues updates, revisions.
March 1, 2008... Medicare issues updates, revisions The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a revision to Transmittal 1304 (Change Request 5567) which was titled "Reporting of Additional Data to Describe Services on Hospice Claims."...