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Ann Mitchell, MPH; Dianne Hunter, PhD, MHSA; Dawn Blackhurst, MS; Cary Stroud, MD; Burton Lee, MD
Greenville Hospital System Greenville, SC

JAMA. 1994;271(20):1576-1577.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Hospice care is the logical choice for many terminally ill patients since it allows the patient to remain at home as much as possible. According to a 1992 Gallup poll, nine of 10 Americans prefer this option.¹ But instead of staying at home, dying Americans are usually in hospitals during their last 2 months of life spending vast sums of money² (and written communication, David L. Felsenthal, research manager, The Advisory Board Company, Washington, DC, No

vember 18, 1993) to get what they say they do not want, ie, expensive and commonly painful acute terminal care, frequently in intensive care units.

In addition to being the alternative people say they want, hospice care is also less costly for the terminally ill. Looking at the economic savings of hospice care, we completed a retrospective study of charges incurred by patients with comparable diagnoses of lung, colon, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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