An examination of the relationship between hospice organizational model, profit status, and family satisfaction

As the population ages and medical advances prolong living with chronic illness, meeting the health care needs of individuals at the end of life becomes increasingly important and challenging in today's health care environment. Improving quality of care at the end of life is a mission shared by freestanding, hospital-based, and home health agency-based hospice organizations, the three predominate models of hospice organizations. The construct of satisfaction is one way in which to evaluate the concept of a good death as one measure of quality end of life care. This non-experimental, retrospective, descriptive research study examined specific aspects of hospice care that were related to family satisfaction with hospice care. This study also examined the relationship between family satisfaction in the domains of coordination of care, attention to family needs, information and communication about patients, and information about symptoms, and the organizational model and profit status of hospice organizations. The results of this study found no significant relationship between the organizational model and profit status of hospice organization and family satisfaction with the hospice experience. Additional analysis found a significant relationship between both organizational model and profit status and the average daily census of the hospice organizations; freestanding and for-profit hospice organizations have the highest average daily census. In addition, analysis found that the families of patients with longer length of stays have greater satisfaction with hospice services. This information can guide the development of new hospice organizations and the allocation of dollars used to provide care at the end of life.