During National Hospice and Palliative Care Month in November, we posted a variety of statistics about others to talk about the topic. We were so pleased with the amount of sharing and we want to thank our online community for the tremendous amount of support last month.

Our goal was to commemorate the month by sharing a number of facts and figures to increase awareness and combat myths about this specialized health care field. For example, we shared findings from a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine that showed lung cancer patients who received early Palliative Care lived 23.3 % longer than those who delayed Palliative treatment.

A few of the other most popular hospice statistics we shared included:

• Hospice patients live 29 days longer than non-hospice patients.
• There are an estimated 1.56 million patients who received Hospice services last year.
• The average length of hospice service is 69.0 days.
• More than half of hospice patients are female at 53.8%.
• Hospices are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• The first White House proclamation honoring hospice month was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

We are grateful for everyone who re-shared these stats and helped us with our mission to inform the community. A special thank you to: @Renee_Barry, @Ctsinclair and @JoeGormally who were essential in helping to help spread the word about Hospice and Palliative care.

As advocates and professionals in this field, our work is not done. Although National Hospice and Palliative Care Month is officially over, we’d like to continue the conversation about end-of-life care, both on Twitter and here, on our blog.  Regardless of the month, awareness about hospice is a message we believe in and we hope to grow understanding of hospice care throughout the year.