Where people die

Truer words were never spoken: we all have to die sometime. But here’s something you may have thought less about: we all have to die somewhere. And most people don’t want it to be in a hospital. Despite this, about one-third of deaths in this country occur in hospitals. The good news is, that this seems to be changing. Where people die is changing Although more than 700,000 people die in hospitals each year in the US, the trend is toward fewer in-hospital deaths. According to the CDC, the number of people dying in the hospital dropped from 776,000 to 715,000 (an 8% drop), even as hospital admissions increased from 31.7 million to 35.1 million (an 11% increase). Some of the most dramatic reductions in hospital deaths were among people with kidney disease and cancer. A July 2016 study published in the medical journal Health Affairs found that deaths in the emergency room have dropped as well. In fact, the study found that the number of deaths occurring in US emergency rooms dropped by almost half between 1997 and 2011. The actual rates reflect how rare emergency room deaths are: from 1.48 to 0.77 per 1,000 adults. It’s unclear how much lower these numbers can go. Almost two-thirds of the deaths occurred among people who arrived in the ER unconscious, in cardiac arrest, or dead on arrival. What explains these trends? Some of the reduction in deaths during hospital stays and emergency room visits could be due to improved treatment. But much of the decrease is probably due t...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: End of life Health Source Type: blogs