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What Percent of Hospice Care Occurs in the Home?
Date Updated: December 23, 2024
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Sarah has produced thousands of articles in diverse niches over her decade-long career as a full-time freelance writer. This includes substantial content in the fields of senior care and health care. She has experience writing about wide-ranging topics, such as types of care, care costs, funding options, state Medicaid programs and senior resources.
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Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a health care professional, researcher, and an experienced medical writer (2000+ articles published online and several medical ebooks). She received her MD degree from “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine, Romania, and her HD diploma from OCHM – Toronto, Canada.
Over 50 % of hospice care occurs in the home, according to data from 2016. The same report details that around 42% of hospice recipients live in nursing homes. This aligns with other sources, which state most people receive hospice services in a home or homelike setting.
Home Hospice Care Overview
According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, most hospice care takes place in the setting the individual calls home. Typical environments include private residences, assisted living communities and nursing homes. The Alzheimer’s Association and American Cancer Society also report that most hospice care occurs in familiar, outpatient locations. Remaining at home for their final days can bring comfort to patients. It also enables them to spend quality time with loved ones and pets, enjoy memories and maintain a degree of independence.
Hospice teams include nurses, aides and therapists who visit people in their homes to provide wide-ranging end-of-life care. Besides relieving symptoms such as pain, nausea and fatigue, hospice enhances overall well-being through counseling, spiritual advice and therapeutic measures. Families play an essential role in home hospice care, and professionals reinforce informal caregivers with practical education and compassionate support.
Unsuitability of Home Hospice Care
While many older adults remain comfortably at home for the last stage of their lives, home hospice care isn’t suitable for every terminally ill patient. Those without close kin lack vital assistance outside the hospice team’s visiting hours. In such cases, individuals benefit from moving to a stand-alone hospice facility or a residential care facility.
Sometimes, a person’s condition doesn’t allow for safe and comfortable care at home. For example, people may require intensive medical care, around-the-clock monitoring, frequent medication administration or regular adaptations to care routines. When conditions aren’t stable or home hospice care is otherwise impractical, people need inpatient admission.