title: Understanding and improving hospice enrollment.
abstract: Hospice is considered the "gold standard" for end-of-life care, providing dying patients and their families access to a broad array of services across settings. Despite its comprehensive approach, hospice care remains underutilized; many patients who might benefit from hospice do not enroll, or enroll only in the last days of life. This Issue Brief summarizes a series of studies that shed light on the decision making process about hospice, and describes a simple, effective way to improve referrals to hospice among nursing home residents.
authors.affiliation: Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Casarett
mesh_terms: D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006738:Hospices; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007902:Length of Stay; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010360:Patient Transfer; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States