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Completing advance directives should not be seen as a legal task. While there is a legal component to the document, it is primarily a communication task, says Charlie Sabatino, JD, director of the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Law and Aging in Washington, DC.
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As the nation's population ages, a growing number of registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, and nurses' aides will be working in patients' homes rather than in hospitals. But many of them will be working without the basic safety devices that most nurses now take for granted, safety experts say.
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When Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City began looking at implementing palliative care and end-of-life services, the case management department was the appropriate place to start, says Anita Bell, RN, MEd CHPN, palliative care coordinator at the 508-bed facility.
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In a welcome move, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a three-month suspension in enforcement of the hospice and home health face-to-face recertification requirements that were in effect on Jan. 1, 2011. The suspension followed a meeting between National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's (NHPCO) leadership and CMS officials.
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Judaism is practiced in many diverse ways in the United States, yet sometimes even non-practicing Jews still observe Jewish laws at the end of life, suggests Barry Kinzbrunner, MD, chief medical officer for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in Miami.
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One of the more controversial components of the health care reform law has been the inclusion of advanced care planning as part of a Medicare annual checkup or wellness visit.
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"Location, location, location" is often cited as the key to success in the real estate market, and it is not that different in the retail business, says Debbie Ludvik, manager of the hospice resale shop at Hospice of the Western Reserve in Cleveland, OH.
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Not only has the recession resulted in a 3.6% drop in charitable giving but 62% of Americans say they also have cut back on their spending since the recession began.
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Recent studies have shown that acupuncture can help control several symptoms and side effects such as pain, fatigue, dry mouth, nausea, and vomiting associated with a variety of cancers and their treatments.
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Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that 98% of the U.S. population lives in communities within 60 minutes of a hospice provider, which suggests that disparities in use of hospice are not likely due to a lack of access to a hospice provider.
