RI Researcher Finds Only 1 in 3 Medicare Patients Die At Home
New research shows that one in three elderly Americans on Medicare passes away at home. This is not encouraging news, given that most seniors would prefer to die at home or the home of a loved one. But there is a positive development: the number of Medicare patients who died in hospital decreased from 32.6 percent in 2000 to 24.5 percent in 2009.
The results of a study led by Brown University professor Dr. Joan Teno were recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and are both encouraging and discouraging. For example, the report stated that hospice use increased greatly from 2000 to 2009. On the downside, though, “In 2000, a Medicare patient who died was moved an average of two times in the last 90 days of life; by 2009, that average increased to three times.”
Dr. Teno “has devoted her career to understanding how to measure and improve the quality of frail, older and dying persons. She has led a statewide effort to improve pain management in nursing homes, for which she has received an award from the American Cancer Society.”
Source: The Crescent-News. Research: Only a third of elderly Medicare patients die at home. February 10, 2013.
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