Palliative care in hospitals

This chapter discusses hospital-based palliative care programmes. There are rapid advances in medical therapies and, partly as a result, meeting the care needs of patients in palliative care is becoming increasingly complex and technical. Palliative care (or palliative medicine) is increasingly becoming a medical specialty and hospital-based palliative care programmes have, as a result, become more important. The organization of palliative care services in hospitals, with a particular focus on the USA, and its impact on patient outcomes and health care costs, is discussed, as are the challenges hospital palliative care programmes may face in the future.