Special care hospice units in nursing homes.

The emergence of hospice care in the nursing home is a trend about which we have virtually no information. As a first step to a more comprehensive examination of this phenomenon, we provide a descriptive analysis of nursing homes that contain special care hospice units and a preliminary analysis of the determinants of nursing homes with special care hospice units. We found that being small, being a proprietary facility, being part of a chain, and being located in a more competitive environment are significantly related to having a hospice special care unit.