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Health Reform in a New Era: Options for the Obama Administration Karen Davis of the Commonwealth Fund outlines several realistic scenarios on health reform options for the Obama administration: (Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:55:00 GMT) Washington Voters Pass Death with Dignity Act Assisted suicide measure passed by a vote of 58.68% (yes) to 41.32% (no). (Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:16:00 GMT) Harvard PCEP program accepting applications The Harvard Medical School Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice (PCEP) is accepting applications for its 2009 trainings. The deadline is January 30, 2009. (Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:07:00 GMT) HFA Teleconference on Diversity and End-Of-Life-Care Hospice Foundation of America is registering sites for its upcoming videoconference on Diversity and End-Of-Life Care. (Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:16:00 GMT) Bill introduced to improve access to investigational drugs by terminally ill patients Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) and Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) have introduced the Access, Compassion, Care, and Ethics for Seriously Ill Patients Act (ACCESS) to make it easier for terminally ill patients to use treatments in the investigational phase of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. (Fri, 23 May 2008 10:45:00 GMT) OIG Presents Ways to Improve Quality of Nursing Home Care Lewis Morris, Chief Counsel to the Inspector General, testified before Congress on ways to improve the quality of nursing home care. (Sat, 17 May 2008 19:50:00 GMT) Nursing home enforcement needs to get tougher, study says Center for Medicare Advocacy review of nursing home enforcement decisions shows that serious deficiencies often get only modest fines and penalties, calls for tougher action. (Fri, 16 May 2008 20:13:00 GMT) Inspectors Often Overlook Serious Deficiencies at U.S. Nursing Homes, GAO Report Finds State nursing home inspectors miss or minimize deficiencies such as malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of medications and abuse that pose threats to patients, according to a report by the Govenment Accountability Office . (Thu, 15 May 2008 9:50:00 GMT) FDA approves Relistor for treatment of opioid-induced constipation The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Relistor™ (methylnaltrexone bromide) subcutaneous injection for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation in patients with advanced illness who are receiving palliative care, when response to laxative therapy has not been sufficient. (Tue, 6 May 2008 16:41:00 GMT) Size of the Medicare funding shortfall exceeds that of the mortgage crisis American Enterprise Institute study says that if Medicare is to pay all of its bills over the next seventy-five years, $36 trillion in general taxes, measured in today's dollars, must be transferred to the trust funds. (Tue, 6 May 2008 20:50:00 GMT) |
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Hospice for inmates There's a very powerful piece in today's New York Times about a jail in which dying prisoners receive hospice care from fellow inmates. The men who volunteer for the program provide comfort and camaraderie to the dying inmates, but many... |
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lesmorgan: How to spam Facebook like a pro: An insider's confession. Great expose of how ripoffs work and security holes: http://tinyurl.com/yg52kyn lesmorgan: How to spam Facebook like a pro: An insider's confession. Great expose of how ripoffs work and security holes: http://tinyurl.com/yg52kyn (Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:17:23 +0000) |
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A report card for hospices Through the complex process of reforming the American health care system, both within Congress and outside of it, one of the repeated themes is the need for the providers of health services to be more "transparent" -- to openly share... |
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Room for Change: In Attitude and Stature Previous chapters of Room For Change have addressed redesigning areas of your home and thereby creating room to change your outlook or perspective. It has also been suggested that simply moving in a different daily pattern can create a more optimistic outlook or help with your grief feelings if only for a fleeting time. What has not been addressed is how you feel in such a space or in other physical settings that you may venture to, be it a family gathering, church, a restaurant or your office. In grief, we often do not know from minute to minute how... |
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Unbearability of suffering at the end of life: the development of a new measuring device, the SOS-V Background: Unbearable suffering is an important issue in end-of-life decisions. However, there has been no systematic, prospective, patient-oriented research which has focused on unbearable suffering, nor is there a suitable measurement instrument. This article describes the methodological development of a quantitative instrument to measure the nature and intensity of unbearable suffering, practical aspects of its use in end-stage cancer patients in general practice, and studies content validity and psychometric properties. Methods: Recognizing the conceptual difference between unbearability of suffering and extent or intensity of suffering, we developed an instrument. The compilation of aspects considered to be of importance was based on a literature search. Psychometric properties were determined on results of the first interviews with 64 end-stage cancer patients that participated in a longitudinal study in the Netherlands. Results: The instrument measures five domains: medical signs and symptoms, loss of function, personal aspects, aspects of environment, and nature and prognosis of the disease. Sixty nine aspects were investigated, and an overall score was asked. In 64 end-stage cancer patients the instrument was used in total 153 times with an average interview time varying from 20-40 minutes. Cronbachs alpha's of the subscales were in majority above 0.7. The sum scores of (sub)scales were correlated strongly to overall measures on suffering. Conclusions: The SOS-V is an instrument for measuring the unbearability of suffering in end-stage cancer patients with good content validity and psychometric properties, which is feasible to be used in practice. This structured instrument makes it possible to identify and study unbearable suffering in a quantitative and patient-oriented way. |
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Work on £5.5m hospice to start after 20 years (Express and Star) The foundations for the first-ever adult hospice in Walsall will be laid next week marking the end of a 20-year campaign for the health complex. (Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:46:21 GMT) |
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Medicare.gov Data Updates This week the data for the following tools was updated on Medicare.gov: Nursing Home Compare Helpful Contacts Medicare Options Compare<. (Thu, 26 March 2009 11:30:45 GMT) |
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