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.”