Serving Those Who Served: The Unique Benefit of Inpatient Hospice at the VA (S783)

An abstract of a study by Khan et al summarizing the unique characteristics of VA's Community Living Center serving both hospice care and Long Term Care veterans, comparing trends of special care and symptoms is presented. Inpatient hospice benefit is a unique care option available to terminally ill veterans. These veterans have complex care needs, multiple terminal diagnoses and uncontrolled symptoms. Other community options need to explore early inpatient hospice benefits for terminally ill patients as standard of care.