Cost of Dying and effects of healthcare delivery system - Thesis Example

These can mostly be achieved by designing long-term care facilities or homes to suit their mental and physical requirements. Hospice care is another major facility which caters to the dying during their last few months of life when they are in any terminal or chronic illness and when curative treatment is not feasible. However hospice care has not been accepted by all the people in their dying days. Barriers exist which prevent their opting for this facility. The phenomena of interest in this study lie in the care for the dying and various situations including the budgets allocated in present day circumstances for the terminal patients.

The budgets involved in caring for the dying are now booming so much that finances are increasingly being channeled into it. A comparison of the total health expenditures in relationship to GDP shows an immense difference in the increase in the US when considered against other countries (See Appendix B). The intention of hospice care is to provide intensive care for the dying in their last days. A good team of doctors and nurses, drugs and the latest technology together have made the terminal care expensive.

However, in spite of the arrangements, people are opting to spend their last days in nursing homes rather than in hospice care. This paper intends to demonstrate the underutilization of hospice care, why there is resistance to hospice care from physicians and families, and how hospice care can be integrated into the continuity of care. Dr.Cicely Saunders founded the modern hospice concept (Biskupiak, 2005). The study aims to search for the various literature available on the cost of dying and the services of the healthcare system for the dying in the terminal stages.

It would be interesting to explore how much of the invested amount is actually availed of during the dying phase. Statistics show that much of this amount is not