The annual report of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), “Facts and Figures: Hospice Care in America,” Facts and Figures: Hospice Care in America, released this week shows that the number of patients served remains fairly constant at 1.58 million in 2010 (a slight rise from 1.56 million served in 2009). Yet a statistic of concern to hospice and palliative care professionals is the drop in both median and average length of service.
- The median (50th percentile) length of service in 2010 was 19.7 days, a decrease from 21.1 days in 2009.
- The average length of service dropped to 67.4 days in 2010 from 69 days in 2009.
In other words, half of hospice patients received care for less than 20 days. With drops in both the median and average length of service, there is concern that hospice providers are not reaching the patients and family caregivers who need hospice support in a timely manner. In previous decades, hospices overwhelmingly cared for people with cancer. In 2010, cancer diagnoses dropped to 35.6% (from 40.1% in 2009). At 14.3%, heart disease—the leading cause of death in the U.S.—is the leading non-cancer diagnosis among hospice patients.
(more…)