A comparative cost analysis of terminal cancer care in home hospice patients and controls.

A comparison is made between the expenditure during the last 90 days of life on 98 terminal cancer patients cared for by a home based hospice service and that on matched patients dying without the home hospice service. The control patients were matched for site of primary cancer, age and sex. The individual records of both groups of patients were analyzed and costed. It was found that the costs of providing 24 hour comprehensive medical and nursing care at home to those dying of cancer and support for their families was no more expensive than traditional institutional care.