Open AccessFactors of Hospitals Associated With an Independent Hospice Care Unit
Author(s) -
YoungTaek Park,
Hae Choon Chang,
Hyun Chang Shin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of hospice and palliative nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.457
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1539-0705
pISSN - 1522-2179
DOI - 10.1097/njh.0000000000000806
Subject(s) - medicine , odds ratio , staffing , confidence interval , health care , logistic regression , cross sectional study , emergency medicine , family medicine , nursing , pathology , economics , economic growth
Few studies have examined why some hospitals operate independent hospice units (IHUs) and others do not. This study aims to investigate the organizational factors of hospitals having IHU. The units of analysis were individual hospitals. The study had a cross-sectional design and used health insurance claims data of 349 hospitals in Korea from January 1 to December 31, 2019. The dependent variable was whether a hospital operated an IHU. The independent variables were the percentage of patients with cancer, overall severity of patients, percentage of patients 60 years and older, health care cost per patient, percentage of inpatients, and nurse staffing level. Independent hospice units were present at 21.2% of the hospitals (74/349). The odds of having an IHU were significantly associated with the following factors: the percentage of patients with cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.228; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.071-1.408; P = .003), disease severity (OR, 5.129; 95% CI, 2.477-10.622; P < .001), percentage of patients 60 years and older (OR, 1.053; 95% CI, 1.015-1.092; P = .006), health care cost per patient (OR, 1.018; 95% CI, 1.009-1.027; P < .001), and nurse staffing level (OR, 0.439; 95% CI, 0.292-0.661; P < .001). The organizational factors of hospitals operating IHUs were similar to those of hospice facilities.