FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb says the drug fills “a specific and important, but limited, unmet medical need in treating our nation’s soldiers on the battlefield.” The drug is administered under the tongue, which may have battlefield applications, and would not be available through pharmacies.
Stevie Ray’s Death and Dying Comedy Show is finding humor around the subject of death. “We’re not here to make fun of death,” says Steve Rentfrow, who performs under the stage name Stevie Ray. “We’ve put together a show that not only educates, but entertains.”
The five-year grant will fund the first large-scale clinical trial of this population and their caregivers. NYU reports that 16% of hospice patients have dementia as their primary diagnosis, making it the second most common diagnosis after cancer.
When considering entering hospice care, “Don’t let the expense deter you,” says US News & World Report. Contributor Maryalene LaPonsie argues for the value within hospice care, citing those like NHPCO President Edo Banach who says, “Few people know that hospice is not just for the patient, but for the family.” The article describes coverage benefits, including the “myriad Medicare benefits for hospice patients.”
The population of seriously ill patients and their caregivers continues to grow. With this expansion of need and care, questions arise about the services provided, challenges faced, and sustainability of community-based of palliative care. Over the summer, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization conducted surveys of its membership from forty-eight states. The result is a newly released report titled NHPCO Palliative Care Needs Survey Results.
A “seismic shift” in care is due in palliative care delivery, according to the latest edition of the National Consensus Project’s (NCP’s) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care. The call to action comes from guidelines that were “created to define the field of palliative care,” says Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, co-chair of the NCP Steering Committee, and have continued to do so for over fifteen years.
Among the items in this legislation is a provision that allows certain hospice employees to dispose of controlled substance drugs onsite after a patient’s death, currently prohibited under 2014 DEA regulations.
“We should be looking to how much we spend on sick people, not how much we spend on people who die within some arbitrary time frame. If we are going to cure the medical cost growth problem, we first need to accurately diagnose the problem.”
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Compared with those in lower-spending areas, physicians in higher-spending areas reported less knowledge about and comfort with treating dying patients and less positive attitudes about hospice.
Advanced heart failure (HF) patients who received HF-tailored hospice care used less healthcare, lived longer, and were less likely to die in the hospital, according to a propensity score-matched Medicare analysis
Also highlighted in the article is the Louisiana State Penitentiary prison known as Angola, which will enviably make decisions about end-of-life care options for the 80% of its 6,500 inmates serving life sentences. Both Minnesota and Angola, notes the article allows families to visit the dying inmates “in an attempt to replicate hospice practices as they would occur in the community.”