Hospice

Providing care in the right place, at the right time, and by the right provider can only be possible by working together across the health care continuum—and it starts with clear communication and education.

Let’s face it: we all get tired, distracted, and a little noncompliant during the holidays. So what can you do as a post-acute healthcare professional to keep your patients safer as they celebrate the holiday season and potentially expose themselves to increased risks for emergent and/or inpatient treatment?

Clients and patients who use home health, home care, and hospice want to honor you, and at what better time than the holidays? But where do we draw the line? When do we stop being healthcare professionals, and become friends, or extended family, to our patients and clients?

For many of us, the opportunity to journey with others as they face serious illness and the end of life in their own unique way is what drew us to hospice in the first place. Will the need to report the same data on every patient mean that individualized care must go by the wayside? Let’s explore that concern a bit. 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have published the inaugural report for the Hospice Care Index. Are you diving into your results or delaying even taking a peek?

While medical records can't tell the stories that patients with Alzheimer’s deserve, home care and hospice professionals can. This Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, you can better honor those lost in dementia symptoms by practicing person-centered care to make the transition more comfortable for everyone involved in the care process.

It is easy for all healthcare providers to be “givers” and share their compassion willingly as they care for patients and families. But what about the professional home care and hospice caregivers who create these amazing impacts on all of their patients and families. Are we checking on them?

The OIG announced a new focused audit that will be conducted in FY 2023. The audit focuses on beneficiary eligibility for hospice services in the absence of a recent hospital encounter. How will your organization respond to this news?

Home health providers are at a significantly higher risk for HIPAA violations. Here’s how you can better protect your clients and caregivers from falling victim to the 289,000 privacy complaints made this year.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) spearheads National Patient Safety Week each year, seeking to encourage everyone to learn more about health care safety and the steps we can take to protect ourselves and our patients from harm.

Hospitals are experiencing huge resurgences of virus-related admissions, emergency departments are over capacity, and many facilities are again under heavy restrictions. Now is the time to ask yourself: Is my hospice agency ready to face the challenges of the season?