10.14.2016
Clinical Alerts
09.13.2016
Interventions for Reducing Hospital Readmission Rates: The Role of Hospice and Palliative Care
The State Action on Avoidable Readmissions (STAAR) initiative is a quality improvement collaborative whose primary goal is to reduce unplanned readmissions. In this article, published...
09.13.2016
Risk Factors for Hospitalization of Home Hospice Enrollees: Development and Validation of a Predictive Tool
Despite a focus on preventing hospitalizations, over 10% of the hospice population will experience one transition of care during their last 6 months of life,...
09.13.2016
Toward Safer Transitions: A Curriculum to Teach and Assess Hospital to Hospice Handoffs
The hospital-to-hospice handoff is a unique opportunity to teach patient safety in a palliative medicine context. Published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom management, through...
08.23.2016
Quality of End-Of-Life Care Provided to Patients with Different Serious Illnesses
Many initiatives to improve the quality of end-of-life care focus on cancer as the terminal diagnosis while other illnesses receive little attention. In June, JAMA...
08.23.2016
Assessing Emotional Suffering in Palliative Care
Patients receiving palliative care experience not only physical distress but also emotional and spiritual distress. It is the role of the interdisciplinary palliative care team...
08.23.2016
Palliative Care in Sudden Death
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, “palliative care” improves the quality of life of patients and families, who face life-threatening illness, by providing...
07.14.2016
At End of Life, Aggressive Cancer Treatment Often Eclipses Recommended Palliative Care
According to the findings of a study presented last month at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), aggressive, nonbeneficial...
07.14.2016
Communication About Serious Illness Care Goals
Communication can be challenging, yet essential to developing an effective care plan for patients who are seriously ill. There is a misconception that talking about...