Wednesday, October 30, 2013
NHPCO Releases 2013 Facts and Figures for Hospice Care in America
Every Fall the National Hospice and Palliative CareOrganization releases the Hospice
Facts and Figures report, just in time for National Hospice and
Palliative Care Month. The format overall is relatively the same with some
minor differences. Overall, the same
trends we have seen over the past few years have kept going in the same
direction with the same velocity:
- Increased # of patients served* (1.5M)
- Increasing average length of service (71.8d)
- Decreased median length of service (18.7d)
- Slightly higher percentage of elderly patients served
- Higher diversity of patients served
- Increasing percentage of non-cancer diagnosis led by debility and dementia
- Increasing number of hospice programs (5,500)
- Increasing percentage of for-profit hospice programs
- Increase in Inpatient Hospice (GIP) days
- Declining satisfaction rates (although still high)
I find this to be a very helpful guide to understanding end
of life care in the United States and have shared and discussed it in IDG and
with organizational leadership. It
serves as a helpful benchmark for a hospice program (in addition to the annual PEPPER
reports) compared to national standards. It is also extremely helpful for
presentations as you always want to make sure you are using the most up to date
statistics on hospice care. How do you
use the NHPCO Facts and Figures?
I always thought it would be good to have a nice public spreadsheet with all the data from the past NHPCO Facts and Figures. (Although the report is copyrighted which we respect, it seems like a good crowdsourcing or Open Data project.) To save you from having to search for past PDFs I have listed all the ones I am familiar with here. Download them before the links are broken! (If anyone has them from
earlier please send them to me or add the link in the comments)
- 2013 http://www.nhpco.org/sites/default/files/public/Statistics_Research/2013_Facts_Figures.pdf
- 2012 http://www.nhpco.org/sites/default/files/public/Statistics_Research/2012_Facts_Figures.pdf
- 2011 http://www.nhpco.org/sites/default/files/public/Statistics_Research/2011_Facts_Figures.pdf
- 2010 http://www.stjosephhospice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Hospice_Facts_Figures_Oct-2010.pdf
- 2009 http://ebookbrowsee.net/nhpco-facts-and-figures-pdf-d146287250
- 2008 http://www.lovinghandshospice.com/pdf/nhpco_facts-and-figures.pdf
- 2007 http://web.archive.org/web/20081001182409/http://www.nhpco.org/files/public/Statistics_Research/NHPCO_facts-and-figures_Nov2007.pdf
- 2006 Summary http://www.allhealth.org/briefingmaterials/NHPCO-NHPCOsFactsandFigures-2005Findings-760.pdf
- 2006 State Supplement http://www.hpcai.org/documents/filelibrary/documents/pdf/NHPCO_NDS_2006_State_Report_FINAL.pdf