As the nation's population ages, nursing homes have become a significant provider of care delivery at the end of life. Hospice services can significantly improve end-of-life care, so a good hospice-nursing home relationship can be a crucial element in delivering such care. The potential benefits of hospices in nursing homes are significant. Nursing homes receive the hospices' expertise in pain and symptom management, access to enhanced patient benefits such as pharmaceuticals and bereavement support, and access to training resources. Hospices gain access to alternative bed arrangements for inpatient care, round-the-clock support and supervision, and dietary services. Hospices and nursing homes together can better serve the end-of-life care needs of nursing home residents than either could provide on its own. How beneficial the relationship is, however, depends on how well the particular hospice and nursing home are able to cooperate — and creating a good relationship is not always easy.

To better understand how hospices and nursing homes work together, the California HealthCare Foundation commissioned The Corridor Group (TCG) to research these relationships in California, including benefits and risks for each entity, types of collaboration, perceived quality of care, and opportunities for improvement.

TCG conducted surveys concerning these issues with 138 industry stakeholders and representatives of hospices and nursing homes throughout California. This issue brief explores the survey findings, and offers a call to action in response to challenges in the relationship between hospices and nursing homes, with the goal of improving end-of-life care delivery and access in California nursing homes.

The issue brief is available under Document Downloads.