title: The Growth of Palliative Care in U.S. Hospitals: A Status Report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Palliative care is expanding rapidly in the United States.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine variation in access to hospital palliative care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were obtained from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Surveys™ for Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013, the National Palliative Care Registry™, the Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare, the American Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), web searches, and telephone interviews of hospital administrators and program directors. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine predictors of hospital palliative care programs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-seven percent of hospitals with 50 or more total facility beds reported a palliative care program. Institutional characteristics were strongly associated with the presence of a hospital palliative care program. Ninety percent of hospitals with 300 beds or more were found to have palliative care programs as compared to 56% of hospitals with fewer than 300 beds. Tax status was also a significant predictor. Not-for-profit hospitals and public hospitals were, respectively, 4.8 times and 7.1 times more likely to have a palliative care program as compared to for-profit hospitals. Palliative care penetration was highest in the New England (88% of hospitals), Pacific (77% of hospitals), and mid-Atlantic (77% of hospitals) states and lowest in the west south central (43% of hospitals) and east south central (42% of hospitals) states.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates continued steady growth in the number of hospital palliative care programs in the United States, with almost universal access to services in large U.S. hospitals and academic medical centers. Nevertheless access to palliative care remains uneven and depends on accidents of geography and hospital ownership.
authors.affiliation: 1 Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dumanovsky
authors.affiliation: 1 Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Augustin
authors.affiliation: 1 Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.affiliation: 1 Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lettang
authors.affiliation: 1 Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.|2 Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.
authors.forename: Diane E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.affiliation: 2 Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.|3 National Palliative Care Research Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York.|4 James J. Peters VA Medical Center , Bronx, New York.
authors.forename: R Sean
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Morrison
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D005843:Geography; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States