Readers Speak Out, January/February 2009

Just a few comments that I think would be helpful to provide to anyone who requests the spreadsheet that you’re offering:

  1. 3 days to identify, discuss, and have patients accept hospice is extremely aggressive compared to CAPC [Center to Advance Palliative Care] experience
  2. Not all patients who die in a hospital will accept hospice care
  3. Because a patient has lived X number of days in a hospital before dying, does not mean that if they had transferred to hospice that all of their days would qualify as GIP [General Inpatient Services].

Without these caveats, I’m afraid that some hospices may greatly overestimate the hospice potential that is likely to materialize from this source.

— Bill Musick
Tower Hill Resources, an affiliate of the Corridor Group
Honolulu, Hawaii