Abstract

The critical look at hospice care by Felicia Ackerman in Vol. 6 of the CambridgeQuarterly requires a response, since the author presents her view as having major implications for health policy. As a healthcare executive with over 25 years experience, and as a spokesperson for both my own program and others in the National Hospice Work Group, twelve of the nation's largest nonprofit hospices, I submit that her analysis of hospice care is naive. Ackerman's lack of practical understanding concerning the care of the terminally ill results in a discussion that misses the key policy issues