A new study published in JAMDA found that more than half of long-stay nursing home residents enrolled in hospice did not receive any visits from hospice aides from April through December 2020. This highlights one of the vast disruptions in health care delivery during the first year of the COVID pandemic.

Approximately 300,000 residents were reviewed for this study from 2019 to 2020. Even for residents who did receive at least one monthly hospice aide visit during 2020, the per-resident-per-month visit minutes were lower than the same months of 2019. Given the critical role aides play in hospice care, the reduction in visits was not only potentially detrimental to patients but also tracking of care for hospices from aide visit insights.

Authors hope this research will prompt more inclusion of hospice providers during future emergency preparedness planning.