Hospice eligibility in patients who died in a tertiary care center.

Background: Hospice is a service that patients, families, and physicians find beneficial, yet a majority of patients die without receiving hospice care. Little is known about how many hospitalized patients are hospice eligible at the time of hospitalization.

Methods: Retrospective chart review was used to examine all adult deaths (n = 688) at a tertiary care center during 2009.