Promoting Excellence in End‐of‐Life Care

According to Sorrell (2006, p. X), end‐of‐life care has had an:
… impressive series of milestones … between 1974 and 2004, the number of hospices grew from zero to 3,200; the Medicare Hospice Benefit was enacted (1982); some 37 percent of hospitals with over 100 beds now offer palliative care; faculty development and professional education in palliative medicine have surged; many states have struck down policy and practice barriers to good pain management; and private philanthropy, led by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Open Society Institute’s Project on Death in America, has contributed $250‐$300 million to fund ambitious change initiatives over the past 15 years.