Hospice Management Advisor Archives – July 1, 2008
July 1, 2008
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Hospice Conditions of Participation focus on quality, patients' rights
For the first time since the Medicare Conditions of Participation (COPs) were created for hospice in 1983, significant revisions that affect the way hospice care is delivered have been developed. The revisions focus on patient rights, improvement in outcomes, and strengthened quality improvement programs. -
Quality, not quantity of QI projects important
The types of quality improvement projects that will be required by early February 2009 by the Hospice Conditions of Participation (COPs) for Medicare will be challenging for some hospice organizations, but they will not be impossible if each hospice chooses the right projects, says Malene S. Davis, MSN, MBA, CHPN, president and CEO of Capital Hospice in Falls Church, VA, and president of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). -
Visit data and charges required for payment
The month of June saw many hospice managers scrambling to develop data collection processes and test software to make sure that claims filed after the July 1, 2008, implementation date for the new Medicare hospice billing rule would be paid. -
Be sensitive to 'personality' of community in marketing
Although fundraising efforts are an important part of any hospice organization's financial stability, the staff at Community Health Professionals in Van Wert, OH, saw the census double during the community capital campaign. -
Experts offer mixed view of HIV vaccine's future
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) of Los Angeles recently raised a stir when the organization's president and its medical chief announced that it was time for the federal government to stop funding research for the HIV vaccine and to put that money into prevention and treatment that works. -
Plea for more effective care at the end of life
There is no shortage of jaw-dropping numbers associated with health care in the United States, but some numbers leave the mandible resting more squarely on the clavicle than others, as the latest edition of the Dartmouth Atlas Project makes abundantly clear. -
Antimicrobial use among demented in nursing homes
Researchers from Harvard Medical School examined antibiotic use in a group of elderly, demented patients residing in 21 nursing homes in the Boston area, focusing on the weeks prior to death. -
Relistor OK'd for those on continuous opioids
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Relistor (methylnaltrexone bromide) to help restore bowel function in patients with late-stage, advanced illness who are receiving opioids on a continuous basis to help alleviate their pain. -
HIMSS report analyzes information security
The Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) recently released a report addressing the state of security of patient information in U.S. hospitals. HIMSS Analytics surveyed 263 senior information technology (IT) executives, chief security officers, and health information managers for the report. -
Addressing agitation, aggression with dementia
Agitation, aggression, and psychosis are predictably problematic in persons with progressive dementia. In fact, more than 90% of dementia patients will experience one or more of these during the course of their illness.