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Inpatient Discharges to Home Hospice and Facility Hospice Care in California

In 2022, there were 55,584 hospitalizations that led to a discharge to hospice care in California, representing 1.7 percent of all discharges (excluding the discharge of newborn babies).

Why is Hospice Important?

Many Americans have expressed a preference for dying in their own home at the end of their life. Hospice provides patients with reliable, comfort-based care while avoiding extreme medical costs and frequent or invasive treatments. It is important to look at patterns of home-based hospice versus facility-based hospice to understand how patients use these services and how hospice can better meet individual needs.

Key Findings

  • Overall: About 78 percent of patients discharged to hospice care in 2022 were placed in home hospice compared to facility hospice.
  • Year-Over-Year Comparison: From 2018-2022, there was an upward trend in patients discharged to hospice care (an approximate 12 percent increase).
  • Age: In 2022, about 55 percent of total discharges to hospice care were patients aged 70-89.
  • Race/Ethnicity: In 2022, 30,980 White patients were discharged to hospice, more than patients of any other race/ethnic group.
  • Race/Ethnicity: About 23 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders discharged to hospice were placed in facility hospice, more often than members of other race/ethnicity groups.
  • Assigned Sex at Birth: About 53 percent of patients discharged to hospice in 2022 were female.
  • Payer: About 79 percent of patients discharged to hospice in 2022 had Medicare as their primary payer.
  • Diagnosis Category: From 2018-2022, patients with a stroke/cardiovascular accident (CVA) diagnosis had the highest percentage of discharges to facility hospice care compared to other diagnosis categories.

How HCAI Created This Product

  • All counts represented in this visualization were patients who were discharged to either home or facility-based hospice and were identified through the disposition variable in the HCAI Patient Discharge Data (PDD).
  • The disease categories represent common groupings of diagnoses relevant to hospice care. These categories were created by organizing Medicare Severity-Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG) codes into distinct groups. 
View Underlying Data

Additional Information

Topic: Healthcare Utilization
Source Link: Healthcare Utilization – Inpatient Discharges
Citation: HCAI — Patient Discharge Data – Hospice Utilization – Patient Demographics, 2018–2022
Temporal Coverage: 2018–2022
Spatial/Geographic Coverage: Statewide, County
Frequency: Annual