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Description: The latest news on quality improvement for care for the dying.
Last Update: 23:07:18 03/05/2006
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Additional Info
First Fetched: 00:16:39 01/31/2004
Last Updated: 23:07:18 03/05/2006
Headlines
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Larry Beresford discusses how to build closer relationships between hospices and palliative care programs.
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Jon Keyserling of NHPCO explains the proposed cuts to hospice funding in President Bush's FY2007 budget. This interview by Les Morgan is provided courtesy of Growth House Radio.
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Susanne Carpenter of the American Medical Student Association Death and Dying Interest Group blogs about life in med school with a spin on end-of-life care.
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A national workgroup has issued a report that provides an assessment of unmet needs of HIV patients and their families with respect to comfort, quality of life and caregiver support, and calls for the re-integration of palliative care into the continuum of HIV care.
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Ernestine S. Pantel writes about serving as health care proxy for her husband while she was directing a project to improve end-of-life care across New York State.
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Jim Hallenbeck puts his spin on a new review by a task-force of gastroenterologists showing that tube feeding gives little benefit for many patient groups with advanced illness. Gastrointest. Endo. 2005; 62(6): 952-959.
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David Weissman's myth-buster show that disease-specific NHPCO guidelines are little better than a flip of the coin in determining whether a patient with end-stage heart or lung disease or dementia will survive more or less than six months.
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President Bush's FY2007 budget proposal will cut Medicare funding for hospice by 0.4% in 2007-2009.
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Jack Freer takes a look at "Do Not Intubate" (DNI) orders. Are they helping or harming patients with terminal respiratory distress?
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The U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Attorney General did not have the authority to attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die under Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law.
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The Hastings Center has issued a Special Report entitled "Improving End Of Life Care: Why has it been so difficult?" (PDF, 1,201 KB) edited by Bruce Jennings, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Thomas H. Murray (2005). Well-done thought pieces by a range of opinion leaders in the field grapple with the reality that while there have been major advances since the mid-1970's, making change in actual care delivery has been a tough nut to crack. For paper copies call The Hastings Center at 845-424-4040 or send email to publications@thehastingscenter.org.
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David Weissman's blog challenges the assumption that palliative care practice will automatically improve in response to education efforts.
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The Assocation for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) is a non-profit international organization that is multidisciplinary and strives toward promoting excellence in thanatology - the study of dying, death, grief, and bereavement.
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British doctors have won an agreement to include an opt-out clause in legislation in the House of Lords that would legalize assisted suicide. The changes make the bill less onerous, but opponents are happy that it will be tabled for a fourth time.
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November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Almost one million dying Americans were served by the nation's 3,300 hospices last year. Yet there are many myths about hospice that keep people from getting this compassionate care when they need it most.
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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, incurable neuromuscular disease that affects about 4,600 newly diagnosed people in the United States each year, who live an average of three to five years after diagnosis. The ALS Workgroup worked to identify key factors necessary to improve palliative care for ALS patients and their families from May 2000 - August 2002. Chaired by Hiroshi Mitsumoto, MD, at the Columbia University Neurologic Institute in New York and managed by the ALS Association (www.alsa.org) in California, this workgroup consisted of 22 members including neurologists, nurses, palliative care specialists and social workers.
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The University of California San Francisco Postgraduate Certificate in Pain Management Online Program provides postgraduate education in pain management to students around the world. The program is offered through a collaboration between the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Sydney, and the University of Edinburgh. The course may be completed entirely online. For more information, visit http://mountzion.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/pain_management/cert_index.html or call Laurie Snyder. United States: (415) 885-7269.
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The annual hospice payment update by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that hospices will receive a 3.7% increase in Medicare payments in fiscal year 2006. The hospice cap amount for the cap year ending October 31, 2005, is $18,963. The cap amount is updated annually at the end of the cap period. Aggregate payments to a hospice are subject to a cap amount according to the Medicare Claims Processing Manual.
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James Hallenbeck suggests creative ways to form a palliative care journal club to help you keep tabs on the literature.
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David Weissman answers common questions about the popular Fast Facts series of concise cheat sheets on palliative care. Fast Facts is one of the best quick reference guides for common clinical questions arising at the end of life.
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Joanne Lynn gives tips on how to use your state Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) to help your hospice or palliative care program.
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Buddhist spiritual leaders discuss aging and dying. Journeying East includes comprehensive and original interviews with Ram Dass, Michael Eigen, Norm Fisher, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joan Halifax , Rodney Smith, and others. Their intellectual and spiritual wisdom, leavened with humor, provides comfort and perspective on dealing with the realities of aging and death.
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The Association for Death Education and Counseling's 28th annual conference will be March 29 - April 2, 2006 in Tampa, Florida. For details visit www.adec.org. ADEC is the oldest interdisciplinary organization in the field of thanatology.
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The American Academy of Bereavement's Annual Conference will be October 26 - 29, 2005, in Phoenix, Arizona. Visit http://www.bereavementacademy.org to learn details.
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Growth House has set up a community-oriented blogging portal devoted to end-of-life care. Our goal is to provide a one-stop portal for access to high-quality blogs related to palliative medicine, hospice care, and end-of-life issues.
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Policy wonks, start your engines! The 2005 White House Conference on Aging is cranking up the policy-making machine. This is a good time to take a look at how this process works behind the scenes, while there is still time to make your voice heard on the subject of coordination of care for frail and chronically ill older Americans. The White House Conference on Aging occurs once a decade to make aging policy recommendations to the President and Congress, and to assist the public and private sectors in promoting dignity, health, independence and economic security of current and future generations of older persons.
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Sharon Kaufman has written an eye-opening new book that reveals how dying really happens in modern American hospitals. Kaufman, a professor of medical anthropology at UC San Francisco, looks with detachment at how focusing on life-saving treatments can put critically ill patients in an indeterminate zone, suspended between life and death. A series of unflinching case studies holds a mirror up to medical professionals and families, showing how assumptions and misinformation often result in poor outcomes. The book will be of value as a reality check for any health professional who works with terminally-ill patients. Families faced with decisions at the end of life can read the book to get insight into how things actually work behind the scenes. Institutional pathways constrain the flow of events in ways the participants may not realize. Only within the last half-century has the number of people who die in hospitals come to vastly outnumber those who die at home. Most of Kaufman's ...
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This practical medical text offers the latest treatments in managing the end stage of chronic diseases. It was written by practicing clinicians and designed to help medical students, residents, and doctors with practical clinical decisions.
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The application deadline for the 2006 End-of-life Counselor Program is October 15, 2005. For details visit the web site at www.alayainstitute.org and download the application forms, or call 415-331-9600. Inspired by the Buddhist tradition, the Alaya Institute encourages the integration of living, dying and transformation through professional training, educational programs and materials. The one-year EOL Counselor course is designed to provide essential clinical competencies, strengthen individual capacity for compassionate service, and enhance spiritual development. Graduates join a national network of dedicated peers encouraging creative solutions as educators, advocates, and guides to the dying. This comprehensive program includes almost 350 hours of instruction utilizing several learning modalities.
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Get tips from the Hospice Foundation of America on how to handle the holidays when you feel like the Grinch.
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