Hospice Management Advisor Archives – August 1, 2008
August 1, 2008
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Medicare proposal to reduce hospice wage index equals rate cut
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) doesn't call it a rate cut. However, the net result of the proposed hospice wage index elimination over the next three years is a reduction in reimbursement. -
Average reductions will vary from state to state
Although the proposed wage index reductions by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will vary from county to county and state to state, hospice experts agree that all hospices will be affected. -
What if your laptops quit talking to your server?
The 22 laptops were working fine. Data were being entered, nurses were visiting patients, and everyone was thrilled with the newly installed electronic health record system. At least that's what everyone believed until nurses started to report that data they transmitted the night before weren't showing up in the records. -
Plan carefully for data recovery
When the hospice nurses' laptops at the St. John Home Health and Hospice in Tulsa, OK, stopped synchronizing with the agency's server, agency management and the software vendor worked through the weekend to identify and solve the problem. -
Truth-telling and hope not mutually exclusive
At what price is cure a goal? And what price does hope carry? -
Truth, gently told, need not end hope
Patient care providers should take care to let patients express what their hopes are and to reframe those hopes, gently, with truth, says Vincent Guss Jr., MDiv, chaplain at Falcons Landing Air Force Retired Officers Community in Potomac Falls, VA. -
End of life is a 'feeling world'
For physicians to explain to patients that there are alternatives at the end of life that can be more valuable than chemotherapy, they first must believe it themselves, says Larry Cripe, MD, an oncologist who teaches hematology/oncology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. Then, they have to develop the communication skills to get that message across, he says. -
Education, best practices cut catheter infection rates
The number of bladder catheter infections per 1,000 device days reported by participants in the Infection Surveillance Project of the Missouri Alliance for Home Care (MAHC) dropped from 3.35 infections in the first quarter of 2005 to 2.68 in the fourth quarter of 2007. -
Symptoms can be patient-specific
Patient and family education about the care of an indwelling catheter is critical, says Gayle Lovato, RN, MS, infection control practitioner at Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, VA, and a member of the Association of Infection Control Professional's communications committee. -
How many 'sacred cows' still are in your pasture?
Participants in the Infection Surveillance Project of the Missouri Alliance for Home Care (MAHC) see their bladder catheter infection rates drop when they participate in the project for several reasons that include a staff focus on the issue, comprehensive education, and the exchange of best practices and ideas among the project participants. -
Baby boomers might not have specialists they need
When 78 million baby boomers reach age 65 in 2011, they will depend upon a health care work force that is too small and unprepared to meet their needs, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine. -
CMS rule doesn't address factors such as salary
Hospice managers and staff members have become accustomed to looking for ways to streamline services and lower costs, but the proposed three-year reductions in the wage index planned by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will add an extra challenge for managers. -
Emergency IT plan must be well designed
Your information technology emergency plan needs to address the types of problems you are most likely to encounter