hospice average length of coverage
In 2014, the median length of service for hospice patients was 17.4 days. This means that of the estimated 1.6 to 1.7 million patients who received hospice services that year, half received hospice care for less than 17.4 days, and the other half received it for longer than that. In fact, the average number of days a patient received hospice care in 2014 was 71.3 days. The dying process takes time. Because of the highly skilled care that hospice workers can provide to their patients, hospice proves most effective when the caregiving team has time to deliver it.