Congress Targets Misuse Of Hospice Drugs
In the bipartisan opioid bill headed to the presidentās desk, hospice workers would be allowed to destroy patientsā unneeded opioids, reducing the risk that families misuse them.
End Of Life
41-60 of 124 results
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Readers And Tweeters Slice And Dice Precision Medicine, Step Therapy
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
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Analysis
Much Touted For Cancer, āPrecision Medicine’ Often Misses The Target
Doctors and hospitals love to talk about the patients theyāve saved with precision medicine, and reporters love to write about them. But the people who die still vastly outnumber the rare successes.
By Liz Szabo -
Avoidable Sepsis Infections Send Thousands Of Seniors To Gruesome Deaths
No one tracks sepsis cases closely enough to know how often these severe infections turn fatal. But the toll ā both human and financial ā is enormous, finds an investigation by KHN and the Chicago Tribune.
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Creating Rituals To Honor The Dead At Long-Term Care Facilities
Death and its companion, grief, are often ignored at nursing homes and assisted living centers. Yet ignoring the loss can lead to depression, staff burnout and other problems.
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A Late-Life Surprise: Taking Care Of Frail, Aging Parents
More and more older adults, age 60 and older, care for their elderly parents and face physical, emotional and financial stress.
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Learning To Live Well With Dementia
Two leading experts on caring for people with Alzheimerās offer ways to make life better for patients and their caregivers.
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Missed Visits, Uncontrolled Pain And Fraud: Report Says Hospice Lacks Oversight
A new government watchdog report outlines vulnerabilities in Medicare's $17 billion hospice program, pointing to inadequate services, inappropriate billing and outright fraud.
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1,400 Nursing Homes Get Lower Medicare Ratings Because Of Staffing Concerns
Medicare said those homes either lacked a registered nurse for āa high number of daysā over three months, provided data the government couldnāt verify or didnāt supply their payroll data at all.
By Jordan Rau and Elizabeth Lucas -
‘Like A Ghost Town’: Erratic Nursing Home Staffing Revealed Through New Records
Daily nursing home payroll records just released by the federal government show the number of nurses and aides dips far below average on some days and consistently plummets on weekends.
By Jordan Rau -
A Hospitalās Human Touch: Why Taking Care In Discharging A Patient Matters
Patients and caregivers often feel abandoned and lose trust in health care professionals when they sense a lack of caring during transitions. With it, they feel better able to handle concerns and act on their doctorsā recommendations.
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Geriatric Assessments Could Fine-Tune Cancer Care For Older Adults
The American Society of Clinical Oncology issued a new guideline that recommends adults 65 and older receive a geriatric assessment when considering or undergoing chemotherapy.
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That āLiving Willā You Signed? At The ER, It Could Be Open To Interpretation.
End-of-life documents express your preferences for care but may not be binding medical orders. Hereās how to better prepare for the unexpected ā that your last wishes wonāt be carried out.
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Suspension Of Californiaās Aid-In-Dying Law Leaves Sick Patients In Limbo
Doctors have stopped writing lethal prescriptions and pharmacists have stopped filling them after a court fight over how the law was enacted.
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Barbara Bush’s End-Of-Life Decision Stirs Debate Over āComfort Careā
The former first ladyās announcement ānot to seek additional medical treatmentā and to focus on ācomfort careā shone a light on end-of-life choices.
By Melissa Bailey and JoNel Aleccia -
āAggressiveā New Advance Directive Would Let Dementia Patients Refuse Food
Supporters call it the strongest move yet to document a patientās advance wishes in cases of severe dementia. Critics say it would deny basic care to societyās most vulnerable.
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Oregon Coupleās Final Days Captured In Intimate Aid-In-Dying Video
Dr. Charles Emerick and his wife, Francie, died together last spring after both being diagnosed with terminal illnesses. First, they let their daughter turn on the camera.
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Never Too Late To Operate? Surgery Near End Of Life Is Common, Costly
Nearly 1 in 3 Medicare patients undergo an operation in their final year of life.
By Liz Szabo -
KHN Conversation On Living Well With Dementia
Listen and learn from this Kaiser Health Newsā Facebook Live event. āNavigating Agingā columnist Judith Graham led a discussion about dementia, one of the most challenging chronic conditions for individuals and their families ā which affects millions of American families.
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At Some Veterans Homes, Aid-In-Dying Is Not An Option
Citing fears of losing federal funds, California is the latest state to require discharge of terminally ill residents from state veterans homes if they plan to end their lives with lethal drugs.