Hospice use among patients with heart failure.
Publication/Presentation Date
7-1-2009
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hospices provide end-of-life care for heart failure (HF) patients, but hospice is underused for these patients, and its use has not been well described.
METHODS: We examined hospice use among 11,754 HF and 31,228 cancer patients. These patients were either discharged from hospice or died while in hospice between January 1, 2004, and June 30, 2005.
RESULTS: The percentages of patients with HF and cancer who received hospice care for /=6 months (7.6% vs 1.1%; P < .001). Patients with HF were significantly more likely to be discharged from hospice alive (19.0% vs 11.3%; P < .001), as were African Americans with HF and those who were prescribed HF medications.
CONCLUSION: Our study provides detailed estimates of hospice use and identifies potential areas of hospice care that are unique to HF patients. Our findings generate hypotheses about the Medicare Hospice Benefit, specifically whether changes to the 6-month prognosis criterion for hospice eligibility would result in increased hospice use for HF patients. We hope that our results will stimulate additional studies to elucidate differences in hospice use between HF and cancer patients, including patient perspectives of hospice care and clinician referral patterns.
Volume
158
Issue
1
First Page
118
Last Page
125
ISSN
1097-6744
Published In/Presented At
Bain, K. T., Maxwell, T. L., Strassels, S. A., & Whellan, D. J. (2009). Hospice use among patients with heart failure. American heart journal, 158(1), 118–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2009.05.013
Disciplines
Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods
PubMedID
19540401
Department(s)
Administration and Leadership
Document Type
Article