Lisa Schulmeister, MN, RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN

Articles by Lisa Schulmeister, MN, RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) released the star ratings on its Hospital Compare website on July 27, 2016. The goal of the site is to enable healthcare consumers to locate information on hospital quality, conduct side-by-side comparisons of hospitals, and review the data on quality presented.

Many people newly diagnosed with sarcoma turn to the internet for information. One of the first things they discover is that sarcoma is a rare type of cancer, with only about 12,000 cases of soft tissue sarcoma and 3000 cases of bone sarcomas diagnosed annually in the United States. To further complicate the search for information, there are at least 50 types of sarcoma.

What constitutes a “good death” or “successful dying” as it has been called? Clinicians I’ve asked have had to stop and think about this. Most responded by describing the opposite—“bad deaths” or dying scenarios that were distressing to the patient, family, and/or healthcare providers.

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