Hospice Care Blog

When a patient and family are facing a terminal diagnosis there are so many feelings and thoughts that they face: questions, concerns, sadness, anger, fear.  It takes a special person, or team, to help patients and families on their end-of-life journey. It would be remiss to think that all healthcare professionals are comfortable with, and capable of, handling some of the emotional needs of patients and families. I'm an optimist. I believe that it's due to an understanding of how to do so, not a lack of desire to do so.

We need to keep in mind that each patient owns their story. Their life story. Their death story. It's important for us to know, as those caring for patients and families, how they see their story progressing. If we don't hear them, we don't know how to appropriately help them.  We need to keep an open mind, free of expectations and judgment. This lends itself to helping everyone involved live for the moment and have control of their situation, rather than have someone control it for them.

There's a holiday coming up that while more of a social/culture type of event, is one that may be challenging for many bereaved: Valentine's Day.

You may be of the mindset that this is a holiday that's hyped up by card companies and such, and that we should express our love for those we care about every day, not only on Valentine's Day.  I agree with you.  However, for those that have lost a partner it could be a day of great sorrow.  With so much pink & red, hearts and cupids floating about, it may be difficult for some to not be overtaken by the loneliness they might feel come on. 

Perhaps your hospice agency is doing something to help individuals who've lost a partner.  Or maybe you're looking for ideas.  Have you considered having a little social gathering?  You could start with inviting those that lost a partner this year to a luncheon event.

We recently completed a FREE Webinar called “Hospice: Trends and Statistics.”  It was a brief overview of the most recently reported statistics and trends associated with the hospice care industry.  If you happened to miss this informative event you can access the recording by clicking here.

HEALTHCAREfirst will be offering more webinars for the hospice care industry and we are looking forward to meeting with many of you again.

A family member has days, perhaps hours, left on this earth.  Their family is preparing to say goodbye. The patient may be conscious and saying their farewells or maybe they've already started to slip into the next phase.  A doctor, nurse, a social worker, suggests that the family consider hospice care. The family starts to question what hospice is and decides it's what's right for their loved one. The patient dies shortly thereafter.

How often do you see this?  The latest statistical reports show that 35% of hospice patients have a length of stay of less than seven days. Add in another 27% to represent the patients that have a length of stay of 8-29 days and you get more than 60% of hospice patients are on-service for less than 30 days.

The services that hospices provide are invaluable. If we look at the overarching benefits, it's understandable why so many people elect hospice.

• Pain Management
  Patients electing hospice receive medications and often, alternative therapies, to help with the management of pain. It is a hospice goal to enable patients to be as pain free as possible.

Hospice agencies should click here to view the handouts for the webinar, “Hospice: Trends and Statistics.” 

This free webinar, to be held this morning at 10:30 CT, is a brief overview of the most recently reported statistics and trends in hospice.  The information includes the number of patients served, days billed, payer mix, length of stay, etc.  The reports contain a great deal of valuable information that we, as an industry, can use to see where we've been and sometimes forecast where we're going based on trends in the market.  We will discuss what the hospice marketplace looks like today as well as take a peek into the future.

If you would like to register for the webinar, click here

This year is going to be a pretty big year in Hospice. With all of the regulatory changes forecasted, such as Quality Data Reporting, we need to be as efficient as ever. We need to know as much about what's happening in the market as we can.

One problem: You're busy. Busy taking care of patients. Busy taking care of the families of your patients. Busy taking care of the people that are taking care of those people! Net: Busy, busy, busy, people!

We understand and we want to help. During this 30-minute webinar we will review highlights of some of the recent statistical reports that have been made available. We'll take a look back to where we've been historically, where we've most recently been and then peek into the future.

To register for the webinar click here

Interesting word.  I'd never heard of it before reading it today in a New York Times article.

Prognosticating: (verb) to foretell from signs or symptoms.

It makes sense. You give a prognosis. To go through the process of identifying a prognosis is prognosticating.

The New York Times article "Why Doctors Can't Predict How Long a Patient Will Live" talks at length about the challenges physicians face today in identifying a prognosis for a patient. In the past I've often considered that physicians are educated for so many years on how to save lives. Education on what to do when curative measures are not desired, or aren’t working, aren’t front and center stage.

In Hospice care "grief" is a word we use often. While in the Hospice world, grief is primarily centered around loss of a loved one there are other causes of grief. When it occurs we experience the loss differently. We may be able to cope and move on in a matter of minutes or it could take days, weeks, months or years, depending on the circumstances and individual.

While the duration of a grieving period can vary significantly, there are standard stages of grief that many experts agree on: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. These stages may also be referred to as the Kübler-Ross model or DABDA.  The stages may not be experienced in the order noted, and some may be skipped entirely. Grief is individual and doesn't follow a set process.

Over the course of my 13 years in the industry I’ve worked with many hospices around the country. Small, mid-sized, very large. Rural, urban. Publicly traded, privately held.  For profit, non-profit. Each one was special and each one taught me something that enhanced my knowledge of hospice and the special people that work within them.  Among the agencies there is a special group of hospices that I could likely go on and on about.  What makes them different and why could I talk, seemingly endlessly, about them? 

I wondered this for some time and then had an epiphany.  Each one had a very special bereavement program.  What made it special was perhaps how they worked with bereaved families, the special programs they offered or how they communicated with their bereaved population.  I met directors that spoke adamantly about how they'd allow or not allow their bereavement coordinators to communicate.  One went so far as to say that any mailing that came from the hospice, regarding bereavement, to a bereaved, should be hand addressed.   He also preferred that the enclosed communications be hand written, whether they were invitations to memorial events or support groups, or a simple "how are you" message.

This is just a quick update following last week's blog post regarding the Hospice Quality Reporting template. 

CMS updated the Hospice Quality Reporting page on December 29th, 2011 with the post indicating that OMB had approved the hospice quality reporting data submission web-entry form.  Click here to access the announcement.

Click here to access the online submission tool. The submission tool does require registration, but it's pretty straight forward:

• User Name
• Password
• Email address
• Security Question / Answer