Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospice helps SNFs better meet patients' needs. Authorities are casting a very jaundiced eye at hospice services furnished in nursing homes, but a recent study shows measurable benefits of the practice. Physician Joan Teno of Brown University describes her study published in the August Journal of the American Geriatrics Society as "one of the largest studies looking at the quality of hospice for persons dying from dementia." In the study, Teno and the other researchers "asked 538 family members of nursing home patients who died of dementia to reflect on the care and support they experienced and observed at their loved one's end of life," according to a release. "Of that group, 260 received hospice care and 278 did not." The study found that family members of hospice patients were 51 percent less likely to report unmet needs and concerns with quality of care. And they were 49 percent less [...]