About Us
The goal of hospice care is to improve the quality of dying patients’ last days by offering comfort and dignity, focusing on palliation and the relief of suffering, individual control and autonomy. Hospice was first introduced in the United States in the 1970s. The number of hospices has grown rapidly in the last twenty years. However, still less than 25% of the dying in the US access this service. Many elderly patients approach end of life in isolation. Rural hospice providers have identified several barriers to the provision of hospice services in their communities such as shortage of nurses, aides, and social workers, insufficient reimbursement and restrictive regulatory definitions of service areas based on mileage and driving time, rather than quality of care outcomes. Telemedicine, defined as the use of telecommunications and information technology with the goal to bridge geographical gaps and enhance the care delivery process, is considered as one possible tool that can transcend barriers to quality end-of-life care. Hospice services via telemedicine can be delivered directly into a patient's home by utilizing videoconferencing technology. This is of particular significance for underserved patients in rural and urban sites, and to patients with limited caregiver support. The Director of the Hospice Association of America has urged the House Committee on Small Business of the US House of Representatives for initiatives for telemedicine services.

The Telehospice Project aims to investigate with a control-experimental design the impact of a telehospice model on satisfaction with delivered care, caregiver burden, crisis prevention rates and overall cost of delivered care. Hospice agencies in the states of Missouri, Washington and Texas are participating in this project. Their client population covers large and diverse geographic areas of the country.