Missed opportunity: Patients fare poorly in long-term acute care hospitals
By
Alicia Lasek
Aug 27, 2019
Most patients who recover in long-term acute care hospitals die within five years. Some may be missing a chance for more appropriate end-of-life care.
It’s not morbid to talk about death … a lot
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 07, 2018
It’s not morbid to talk about death, even on the dance floor at your high school reunion.
LTC not always valuable at end of life to seniors with mental illness
By
Emily Mongan
Nov 17, 2017
Seniors with serious mental illness don’t often seek out skilled nursing care at the end of their lives, recently released survey results show.
What ‘do everything’ can mean
By
Angelo E. Volandes, M.D.
Feb 04, 2015
The day I met Mrs. Bartlett at my hospital, she was an 89-year-old long-stay nursing home resident with moderate-to-severe dementia who was being transferred to my hospitalist service for shortness of...
Hospice is growing fastest in skilled nursing facilities, new report shows
By
Tim Mullaney
Nov 05, 2014
Hospice services increased in nursing homes more than in any other care setting last year, according to the latest annual report from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
Should we all want to die at 75?
By
Tim Mullaney
Sep 30, 2014
Nursing homes would be put out of business if scientists discover how to stop the aging process, McKnight’s Editorial Director John O’Connor wrote in his blog yesterday. But the reverse is...
Addressing quality of death
By
Linda Elizaitis
May 05, 2014
What do you do when a resident crosses the threshold and your organization needs to address quality of death? We all know that there is a great emphasis, appropriately so, on a resident’s quality...
Asking about end-of-life care when patients can still answer
By
Stephan Deutsch, M.D.
Apr 17, 2014
It’s a scene at plays out all too often in hospitals across the United States. A stroke leaves a frail senior incapacitated, lying in a hospital bed. Family members gather around, but no one can...
Why LTC organizations should conduct end-of-life planning conversations
By
Kerry Shannon
Apr 07, 2014
Advance end-of-life planning can spare patients unwanted, aggressive treatments and it can help physicians calibrate care in more reasonable manner.
Expanding support for families
By
Marian Hamilton
Jan 15, 2013
After my husband’s death in 2004, I thought how wonderful it would have been if there were a refuge in a hospital where caregivers could go to “escape” and recharge themselves — an...