Comparison of Medical Expenditure According to Types of Hospice Care in Patients With Terminal Cancer

Abstract

Hospice care is perceived as enhancing life quality for patients with advanced, incurable illness, but cost comparisons to nonhospice patients are difficult to make. Several studies demonstrated that palliative hospice care reduced medical expenditure in terminally ill patients compared with that of nonhospice care. Patients with terminal cancer who were registered in Hospice Care Program (HCP) by the written consent and died during same admission period in Seoul Veterans Hospital, Seoul, Korea, between January 2009 and December 2009 were included. We compared medical expenditure according to the ward type (hospice ward and general ward) in patients who received palliative hospice care in Seoul Veterans Hospital, Korea. The daily total average expenditure for each inpatient was 193 930 and 266 161 in the hospice and general ward, respectively (P = .001). Daily expenditure of parenteral nutrition and laboratory blood tests/X-ray was also significantly lower in hospice ward compared with general ward (P = .002 and P = .006), respectively; 12 (17%) of 72 patients had been admitted in the intensive care unit during hospice care period in general ward (P = .014); 1 (3%) of 32 patients received blood products in hospice ward, but 13 (18%) patients received blood products in general ward during palliative hospice care (P = .039). Hospice ward type in palliative hospice therapy may contribute to reduce economic medical costs as well as to more specific total care for terminally ill patients with cancer.