Profile of a home hospice care unit in Israel.

The aim of this study is to describe the first 3 years of functioning of a home hospice care unit in an urban community in Israel. This home hospice unit is the only palliative care facility available in the Negev area, the southern region of Israel. During the first 3 years, the team took care of 139 cancer patients, age range 28-92 years, mean 64.1 and median 67 years. The mean duration of care was 53.1 days. Every patient had on average 42.7 home visits and telephone contacts. About 8% of all contacts were beyond regular working hours. More than three quarters of the patients were suffering pain on admission. In 50% of the patients pain was controlled by 120 mg morphine daily, and in 73% of the patients pain was controlled with doses up to 320 mg morphine in 24 h. Altogether there were 438 hospitalization days for these patients with an average of 3.6 days per patient since admitted to the unit. The rate of death at home was 88.5%. As a result of the team's experience, new approaches to patient care were implemented in the fourth year of operation of this care facility, of which one of the most important is inclusion of palliative medicine in the curriculum for Family Medicine residents.