Means to a Better End: A Report on Dying in America Today
Last Acts’ state-by-state analysis, Means to a Better End: A Report on Dying in America Today, paints a statistical portrait of the availability and use of end-of-life care. For each state and the District of Columbia, the report assigns a grade (A-E) to eight measurement criteria which reflect key aspects of end-of-life care.
Original and additional documents and reports may be viewed and downloaded from the Last Acts website.
Below are a number of Acrobat PDF documents relevant to the report. You will need the Adobe Reader to access these documents.
US Maps with individual state results
- State Advance Directives
- Percent of Deaths at Home
- Hospice Use-Over 65 (over 65 who used hospice in last year)
- Hospice Use-Median Days (median number of hospice days)
- Hospitals reporting pain management programs
- Hospitals reporting hospice programs
- Hospitals reporting palliative care programs
- People over 65 with 7 or more ICU days in final months
- Nursing home residents in persistent pain
- Strength of state pain policies
- Percent of primary care physicians certified in palliative care
- Percent of full-time equivalent nurses certified in palliative care
