An Evaluation of Feedback and Family Satisfaction to Hospice Care Services

Introduction: Hospice care is an integrated service for terminally ill patients targeting improvement in quality of life while at the same time it extends support to the family of the patient. This study was conducted to assess the level of family satisfaction to hospice care services. Methods: A total of 117 consecutive adult consenting family members (aged >18 years) of the patients who availed hospice care services for at least 1 month during the terminal stages of their patients were interviewed at least 6 months after the death of index patient. A ten-item patient satisfaction questionnaire was used to assess the level of satisfaction on different aspects of hospice care as well as overall satisfaction were recorded as extremely satisfied, satisfied, somewhat satisfied, and dissatisfied. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York, USA) software. The Chi-square test was used to compare the data. Results: Majority of the respondents were aged up to 50 years (52.1%), men (51.3%) and were siblings or spouse of the index patient (63.2%). Maximum (45.3%) availed hospice care for 1–2 months. For all the ten items, majority were extremely satisfied or satisfied. For all the items, none of the respondents were dissatisfied. Overall majority (53.8%) were satisfied followed by extremely satisfied (43.6%) and somewhat satisfied (2.6%), respectively. No significant association of respondent age, sex, relationship with index patient, and duration of hospice care was seen with level of satisfaction ( P > 0.05). Conclusion: Family members of patients availing hospice care were highly satisfied irrespective of age, sex, relationship with patient, and duration of service.