Hospice care in America: facts and figures 2012

Categories: Research.

The overview provides information on:

  • Hospice patient characteristics including information on gender, age, ethnicity, race, primary diagnosis and length of time hospice care is received 
  • Hospice provider characteristics, including the total number of patients served and organisational type and size 
  • Location and level of care provided 
  • Role of paid and volunteer staff. 

Data from previous years is included for comparison.

In 2011 an estimated 1.65 million patients received services from hospice, with 1,059,000 patients dying under hospice care. The NHPCO estimates that approximately 44.6% of the 2,513,000 deaths in the US in 2011 were under the care of a hospice programme. 

The report finds that in 2011, 83.3% of hospice patients were 65 years of age or older—and more than one-third of all hospice patients were 85 years of age or older. Over half (56.4%) of patients were female. 

More than 6% of patients were identified as being of Hispanic or Latino origin. 82.8% of hospice patients were white/Caucasian 

Looking at cancer diagnoses, the report finds that these account for less than half of all hospice admissions (37.7%) – when hospice care was established in the US cancer patients made up the largest percentage of hospice admissions. According to the NHPCO report, the top four non-cancer primary diagnoses for patients admitted to hospice in 2011 were debility unspecified (13.9%), dementia (12.5%), heart disease (11.4%), and lung disease (8.5%). 

There are 5,300 hospice programmes in the US. The total number of days that a patient receives hospice care was 69.1 days. In 2011, 66.4% of patient care is provided in the place the patient calls “home” – in addition to private residences, home includes nursing homes and residential facilities. 

The Medicare hospice benefit is the predominate source of payment for hospice care – 84.1% of hospice patients were covered by Medicare.

A copy of the report can be read on the NHPCO website.

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