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Hospice Referral: An Important Responsibility of the Oncologist

David D. Howell, MD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology at Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Stephen Lutz, MD, is a radiation oncologist, Department of Radiation Oncology, Blanchard Valley Regional Cancer Center in Findlay, Ohio, and the Norval K. Morey Cancer Center in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

Because this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text.

When curative and life-extending therapy is felt to be futile, hospice has a great deal to offer patients, as well as their families and caregivers, with palliative therapy and end-of-life care. More than 1.3 million patients in the US had received services from hospice in 2006, a 162% increase from 1996, with a median length of stay of 20.6 days.¹ Nearly three fourths of hospice patients will die in a private residence, nursing home, or other residential facility, compared with the general population, where close to 50% die in acute care hospitals.² Forty-four percent of the hospice population is made . . . [Click for More]