Hospice care in the United States: quest for quality

Hospice care has emerged as a humane, cost-effective method of providing care for terminally ill patients. Although hospices are relatively new to the United States, their number has mushroomed to about 1,000. Recognizing the need for standards to govern hospice care, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals and the National Hospice Organization are preparing a set of quality assurance standards and the commission will soon offer a voluntary accreditation procedure for hospices. To facilitate the collection of data on hospice care, the NHO and the Joint Commission are collaborating with the American Medical Record Association to create a model medical record. The hospice standards and model record will be instrumental in ensuring nationwide quality assurance and quality assessment for this important new form of medical care.