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The Korean government has implemented a pilot project that introduces a new type of hospice care program called "Consultative Hospice Care" (COHC) since August 2017. The COHC is a new type of hospice program for terminally ill patients in acute care wards, which is different from the Independent Hospice Unit (IHU) care. This study aimed to compare the characteristics of two groups of hospice patients: COHC care only and both IHU care and COHC groups. Healthcare claim data from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2020 were retrieved from the HIRA data warehouse system. The main outcome variable was patients receiving COHC only or both COHC and IHU care. The total number of hospice patients was 6482. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used. Of 6482 hospice care recipients, 3789 (58.5%) received both COHC and IHU care. Those who received both COHC and IHU care were significantly associated with several factors: period from the first evaluation to death (adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 1.026; 95% confidence internal (CI), 1.024–1.029; p < 0.0001), disease severity measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index (aOR, 1.032; CI, 1.017–1.047; p < 0.0001), consciousness (aOR, 3.654; CI, 3.269–4.085; p < 0.0001), and awareness of end-stage disease (aOR, 1.422; CI, 1.226–1.650; p < 0.0001). The COHC program had a critical role in hospice delivery to terminally ill patients. Policymakers on hospice care need to establish plans that promote efficient hospice care delivery systems.

In the version of this article that was originally published [1], some information in the "Acknowledgements" section was omitted. ; This study was supported by the Collaborative Genome Program for Fostering New Post-Genome Industry (NRF-2017M3C9A5031397) and the Brain Research Program (Grant No. NRF-2017M3C7A1027472) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of Republic of Korea. This work was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2019R1C1C1006262). The Biospecimens and data used in this study were provided by the Biobank of Seoul National University Hospital, a member of Korea Biobank Network (SNUH2017-0021).