Provider Resources
Hospice Can Extend LifeAccording to findings in a 2007 study, “Comparing Hospice and Non-hospice Patient Survival Among Patients Who Die Within a Three-Year Window,” patients with some terminal conditions, including congestive heart failure and lung and pancreatic cancer, who chose hospice care lived an average of one month longer than patients with similar conditions who did not choose hospice care.
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (JPSM), March 2007
Hospice care may prolong the lives of some terminally ill patients. In a recent study, the mean survival was 29 days longer for hospice patients than for non-hospice patients. The mean survival period also was significantly longer for the hospice patients with lung cancer (39 days) and pancreatic cancer (21 days), while marginally significant for colon cancer (33 days).
Connor SR, Pyenson B, Fitch K, Spence C, Iwasaki K . Comparing hospice and non-hospice patient survival among patients who die within a three- year window. J Pain Symptom Management. 2007 Mar;33(3):238-46
Hospice Provides a Better Quality of Life
Cancer patients who die at home with hospice care experience a better quality of life at the end compared to those who die in a hospital or intensive care unit, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Place of Death: Correlations With Quality of Life of Patients With Cancer and Predictors of Bereaved Caregivers’ Mental Health JCO Sep 13, 2010:JCO.2009.26.3863; published online on September 13, 2010
An end-of-life study determined that those who died in hospitals experienced more physical and psychological discomfort than those who died at home. According to a survey by the National Hospice and Palliatative Care Organization, 80 percent of terminally ill patients prefer to live out their last days at home as opposed to a hospital. “Patients who died at home were less likely to die in pain. They had less psychological suffering and their loved ones saw that their overall quality of life was better,” said Dr. Alexi Wright, an oncologist with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“End-Of-Life Care at Home Can Improve Quality of Life for Patients and Families;” ABC News; December 27, 2010
In 2008, the national Coping with Cancer project published a study showing that terminally ill cancer patients who were put on a mechanical ventilator, given electrical defibrillation or chest compressions, or admitted, near death, to intensive care had a substantially worse quality of life in their last week than those who received no such interventions. And, six months after their death, their caregivers were three times as likely to suffer major depression. Spending one’s final days in an I.C.U. because of terminal illness is for most people a kind of failure. You lie on a ventilator, your every organ shutting down, your mind teetering on delirium and permanently beyond realizing that you will never leave this borrowed, fluorescent place. The end comes with no chance for you to have said goodbye or “It’s O.K.” or “I’m sorry” or “I love you.”
The New Yorker Magazine, August 2010; http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1KqeCTnH0
Patients Who Have the Conversation with Their Physician are More Likely to Utilize Hospice
The timing of the hospice discussion seems to be the single most influential factor in utilization. Families who were provided hospice information before and during their relative’s terminal illness were seven times more likely to consider hospice than those families who knew of hospice before the illness but did not receive further information during the illness.
Barriers to Physicians’ Decisions to Discuss Hospice: Insights
Gained from the United States Hospice University of Nebraska - Lincoln; 2003.
The 2008 national Coping with Cancer Project published a study stating that patients who had substantial discussions with their physicians regarding end-of-life were far more likely to die in peace, in control of their situation, sparing their family anguish.
The New Yorker Magazine, August 2010; http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1KqeCTnH0