Hospice may not be a great match for all of the care needs of people with dementia, but it sure does help.  And, as often happens, when patients with dementia do not decline as expected, they are too frequently discharged from hospice, an experience that Lauren Hunt and Krista Harrison refer to in an editorial in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) as feeling like being “expelled.”  

We talk on this week’s podcast with Elizabeth Luth, author of a study in JAGS about her study of patients in a large New York Hospice with dementia who either are discharged from hospice or live longer than 6 months.  Turns out this happens - brace yourselves - nearly 40% of the time!

And we talk with Elizabeth and Lauren Hunt, who helps us contextualize these findings in the setting of larger issues around the fit of hospice for persons with dementia and hospice Medicare policy.

(We will add the link to the editorial when it’s uploaded to the JAGS website).

-@AlexSmithMD