Association between administrative and ownership characteristics of hospices and their proportion of inpatient deaths.

Hospice patients are more likely to die at home than patients involved in conventional medical care, but the proportion of home deaths varies between programs. A study of the effect of hospice administrative characteristics on inpatient death rates is presented. Data from hospice programs that operated in New York State between 1993 and 1995 were obtained from the State Health Department and from publications of the National Hospice Organization. Inpatient death rates varied significantly between different operating structures: 11% for hospices that were divisions of home health care agencies; 34% for hospices that were divisions of hospital corporations; and 20% for hospices that were independent hospice corporations. This difference was explained by the presence of dedicated inpatient hospice units: Programs with such units demonstrated higher inpatient death rates than those without (42% versus 11%; P < .00001). Though not necessarily causal, these associations should be of interest to patients, physicians, families, and policy-makers.