BACKGROUND: Defining discharges to hospice as "deaths" is vital for properly assessing trauma center outcomes. This is critical with older patients as a higher proportion is discharged to hospice. The goals of this study were to measure rates of hospice use, evaluate hospice discharge rates by trauma center level, and identify variables affecting hospice use in geriatric trauma. METHODS: Patients from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Inpatient Standard Analytical Files for 2017 to 2019, 65 years or older, with =1 injury International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, code, at hospitals with =50 trauma patients per year were selected. Total deaths was defined as inpatient deaths plus hospice discharges. Dominance analysis identified the most important contributors to a model of hospice use. RESULTS: A total of 1.96 million hospitalizations from 2,317 hospitals (Level I, 10%; II, 14%; III, 18%; IV, 7%; none, 51%) were included. Level I's had significantly lower raw hospice discharge values compared with Levels II and III (I, 0.030; II, 0.035; III, 0.035; p < 0.05) but not Level IV (0.032) or nontrauma centers (0.030) ( p > 0.05). Adjusted Level I hospice discharge rates were lower than all other facility types (Level I, 0.026; II, 0.031; III, 0.034; IV, 0.033; nontrauma, 0.030; p < 0.05). Hospice discharges as a proportion of total deaths varied by level and were lowest (0.38) at Level I centers. Dominance analysis showed that proportion of patients with Injury Severity Score of > 15 contributed most to explaining hospice utilization rates (3.2%) followed by trauma center level (2.3%), proportion White (1.9%), proportion female (1.5%), and urban/rural setting (1.4%). CONCLUSION: In this near population-based geriatric trauma analysis, Level I centers had the lowest hospice discharge rate, but hospice discharge rates varied significantly by trauma level and should be included in mortality assessments of hospital outcomes. As the population ages, accurate assessment of geriatric trauma outcomes becomes more critical. Further studies are needed to evaluate the optimal utilization of hospice in end-of-life decision making for geriatric trauma. (J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2023;94: 554-561. Copyright (C) 2023 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.)
