10.05.2015
Clinical Alerts
09.24.2015
Injectable Morphine Drug Shortage
Manufacturers of injectable morphine alerted the industry on September 18th of a shortage of select strengths of morphine injectable including the 10mg/mL strength, commonly used...
09.16.2015
Availability of Heart Failure Medications in Hospice Care
Symptom management for patients with end-stage heart failure (HF) is demanding. Additionally, the medications most effective for palliation are cardiac-specific (i.e., intravenous furosemide and inotropes)...
09.01.2015
Palliative Care for the Seriously Ill
“Palliative care” is a term often identified as synonymous with “hospice”. Although hospice programs provide the vast majority of this type of care, palliative care...
08.11.2015
Palliative Chemotherapy and Quality of Life at the End of Life
Palliative chemotherapy is prescribed to patients with cancer at end of life to alleviate symptoms and perhaps improve survival. Holly Prigerson and colleagues from the...
07.21.2015
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): Three new palliative care Fast Facts are now available!
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality palliative care services for people facing serious...
07.09.2015
Is a physician’s order required for pulse oximetry in the home?
Despite it’s non-invasive nature, according to CMS and the FDA, hospice clinicians are required to have a physician’s order to obtain pulse oximetry in the...
06.22.2015
Improving Quality at End of Life
Challenges of end-of-life care include primary “physicians’ dearth of training in talking about end-of-life care, lack of reimbursement of such discussions and a definition of...
06.22.2015
Advance directive services begin in a Wisconsin town and may spread nationally
Ninety-six percent of all adult residents of La Crosse, Wisconsin have completed an advance directive. One local physician, concerned about the uncertainty of a patients’...