The Many Hospices That Fail Patients Just Before They Die

December 22, 2014

(Washington Post) – When a hospice patient has chosen to die at home, as they typically do, the days immediately before death are typically the most difficult, and the time when families most need a visiting nurse. But many U.S. hospices regularly fail to send a nurse out to patients in the two days preceding death, according to a Washington Post analysis of millions of Medicare records. About one in five U.S. hospices do not send a nurse out to patients during that critical window for at least 20 percent of patients, according to the data.