New Report "Facts & Figures: Hospice Care in America" Released

Dying Americans Using Hospice Care Remains Stable but New Report Reveals Drop in Length of Service. Greater Proportion of Heart Disease Patients Accessing Hospice Reports NHPCO

NHPCO's annual report on hospice facts and figures released this week shows the number of patients served remains fairly constant at 1.58 million in 2010 (a slight rise from1.56 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. Read the press release online.

Two key points:

• 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.
  

Download the new report: Facts & Figures: Hospice Care in America.




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