Health affairs
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Hospices' enrollment policies may contribute to underuse of hospice care in the United States.
Hospice use in the United States is growing, but little is known about barriers that terminally ill patients may face when trying to access hospice care. This article reports the results of the first national survey of the enrollment policies of 591 US hospices. ⋯ We observe that hospice providers' own enrollment decisions may be an important contributor to previously observed underuse of hospice by patients and families. Policy changes that should be considered include increasing the Medicare hospice per diem rate for patients with complex needs, which could enable more hospices to expand enrollment.
-
The Coordinated-Transitional Care (C-TraC) Program was designed to improve care coordination and outcomes among veterans with high-risk conditions discharged to community settings from the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, in Madison, Wisconsin. ⋯ This model requires a relatively small amount of resources to operate and may represent a viable alternative for hospitals seeking to offer improved transitional care as encouraged by the Affordable Care Act. In particular, the model may be attractive for providers in rural areas or other care settings challenged by wide geographic dispersion of patients or by constrained resources.
-
Emergency medicine physician Raina Merchant created a cell phone program to provide CPR instructions-and now leads an effort to map every automated external defibrillator in the United States.
-
Naa Oyo Kwate not only explores the health impact of racism and inequality, but she also seeks to improve health through innovative "countermarketing" efforts against racism.