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VA Study Finds 95% Increase in Palliative Care Utilization When Patients Have Access to Social Workers

Hospice News

Patients are more likely to receive palliative care if they can access social workers through their primary care providers, Veterans Health Administration (VA) research has found. These findings suggest that social workers may increase access to and/or use of palliative care.”.

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The Art of Servicing Others: Celebrating Hospice Social Workers.

Hospice 101

March is Social Workers Appreciation Month! I wanted to take a moment to especially recognize and honor a specific group of Social Workers that make an enormous difference in the end-of-life journey: Our Hospice Social Workers! Hospice Social Workers Make a Difference.

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Social Workers Leaving Hospice, Health Care in Record Numbers

Hospice News

Hospice have lost social worker employees at a faster rate than any health care setting in the care continuum. . Social workers have left the health care field at record-high rates during the pandemic, according to data from the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation Health System Tracker.

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Hospices Stepping Up Performance on Visits-in-Last-Days-of-Life Measure

Hospice News

The number of registered nurse and social worker visits during a patient’s final week is one of the seven quality measures that CMS uses to evaluate providers. Social worker visits in the last days of life also rose to 9% in 2021, up from 7% in 2020. In 2019, for example, the percentage was 66%.

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Tele-Palliative Care Benefits Veterans with Cardiac, Pulmonary Diseases

Hospice News

For adults with COPD, HF, or ILD who were at high risk of death and had poor quality of life, a nurse and social worker palliative telecare team produced clinically meaningful improvements in quality of life at 6 months compared with usual care,” the study authors indicated. The four-year study took place in two U.S.

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Telehealth Effective in Supporting Rural Caregivers

Hospice News

For the study, caregivers of hospitalized patients who dwell in rural areas participated in a randomized, 8-week intervention consisting of video visits conducted by a palliative care-certified registered nurse. These visits were supplemented with phone calls and texts.

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Community Hospice & Palliative Care Pediatric Program Doubles Nursing Workforce as Census Grows

Hospice News

The Community PedsCare program has an interdisciplinary staff of about 22 employees including a chaplain, social workers, child life specialists, music therapists and a respite program with registered nurses that provide care to families, among others.