What to do when your patient is racist?
April 22, 2014
by: Alex Smith, @alexsmithMD I’d like GeriPal reader’s help with an issue that has vexed me since medical school. As…
Medicare hospice payment reform: not seeing eye to eye
April 10, 2014
By: Alex Smith @alexsmithMD Eye-popping numbers from the headlines of the New York Times today – 2% of doctors bill…
Antibiotics in hospice
January 15, 2014
by: Alex Smith @AlexSmithMD Case 1: You have a 94 year old woman with multiple medical problems in hospice who…
Oral Ketamine for Depression and Anxiety in Hospice
November 21, 2013
by: Alex Smith, @alexsmithMD Journal of Palliative Medicine recently published a nice exploratory open label study of daily oral ketamine…
Hospice and the Transgendered
June 12, 2013
by: Robert Killeen MD Hospice is beset by many societal obstacles in its care of the transgendered patient. I saw…
The Shortsighted Argument in Limiting Hospice Access
March 5, 2013
It feels like every passing day brings with it more news of an aggressive campaign to reign in the cost…
Is it time for another lawsuit? Advocating to change the Medicare Hospice Benefit eligibility requirements
November 5, 2012
By now most everyone has heard about the proposed settlement of a nationwide class-action lawsuit against Medicare that would do…
How do you explain hospice?
July 6, 2012
It’s early July, and so many of us are working with new trainees: fellows, residents, interns, medical students, nursing students…any…
GOP Candidates on Advance Directives
January 26, 2012
We have learned a lot of lessons in Hospice and Palliative Care about how political discourse can impact our field…
Should for-profit hospices be banned? Or are they victims of a witch hunt?
January 6, 2012
10 year stock price of Gentiva, the nation’s fastest growing for-profit hospice provider For-profit hospice has been in the news recently,…