The Growing Demand for Hospice Care and Hospice Agencies in Los Angeles: Trends and Patient Insights
- Updated on: Sep 30, 2025
- Published on Sep 30, 2025
Hospice care is a service that provides individuals with the care they need at the end of their lives. Hospice agencies in Los Angeles are actually seeing an uptick in demand. Let’s take a moment to discuss the trend, what’s fueling it, and what else you should know.
Overview of Hospice Care
Through hospice care, a person remains comfortable at the end of their life. Generally, it’s for those who have a terminal illness or are rapidly declining and have an anticipated six months or less to live.
Aides provide the necessary care to assist with daily living activities, while nurses can administer comfort medication to reduce pain and ease other symptoms associated with this stage of their life. The goal of any hospice care plan is to maximize quality of life and help a patient retain their dignity throughout the process.
Why LA Specifically Is Seeing More Hospice Patients
Maybe it’s because of the young generation you see on TV in bathing suits on the beaches of LA or all the socialites you see living it up in the city, but you don’t often think of LA as a location for the elderly or even individuals of any age who are terminally ill.
However, 11.96 percent of the population there is between the ages of 65 and 84, along with an additional 1.87 percent who are 85 or older. And that population is continuing to grow as people desire year-round nice weather.
Not to mention, the city is home to a number of renowned medical facilities, which draw in those with terminal illnesses. Some examples include:
- UCLA Medical Center (Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center)
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- USC Keck School of Medicine & USC Norris Cancer Center
- Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)
General Reasons for an Increase in Hospice Care
While LA in general is seeing more hospice patients, this is a nationwide trend. Overall, people are living much longer today than ever before. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average life expectancy of both sexes is 78.4 years. Men tend to live to be around 75.8 years, and females 81.1 years. These figures vary slightly based on location.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the average lifespan was in the mid-to-late 70s. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was only in the mid-60s and early 70s.
The reason for this change? Medicine has been changing consistently, and they’re now able to manage — and sometimes treat — issues that they were never able to in the past. More people, for instance, are surviving cancer than ever before. Even the individuals who don’t go into remission are seeing longer lives as the treatments can keep the cancer at bay, and it’s possible to manage any side effects of treatments more effectively.
On the other hand, surgical advances as well as developments in medications for heart conditions are extending life, despite heart disease being the number one cause of death in the country.
What Patients Are Currently Looking for in Hospice Care in LA
With more people looking into hospice care, any hospice agencies in LA must position their facilities as a place that’ll provide their loved one with compassionate care that combines expert medical treatment along with spiritual or emotional support.
Every member of a family is emotional at this time, possibly wishing they had the time, knowledge, or space in their home to provide the level of care their loved one needs. Because it’s just not possible, they’re thankful hospice agencies exist, but they want to make sure they’re choosing one that provides the highest level of care possible.
Ultimately, this means that people are looking to see that a hospice is fully staffed with individuals who can handle the person’s basic — and not-so-basic — needs at the end of life, such as chaplains, nurses, doctors, aides, and social workers.
Someone looking for a hospice is looking for one that offers all the medical supplies their loved one needs and has staffing that fully understands the importance of pain management during this time.
Veterans, for what they sacrificed for the country, deserve respect. However, not every agency caters to this group of individuals. Therefore, as someone compares agencies, any organization that specifically honors those who served might be a priority.
Other than those requirements, often, people look toward reviews of LA hospice agencies to get an understanding of what care from the staff is actually like, since not every company lives up to the promises they make. As a result, someone looking for a hospice service will want to know from previous patients’ families what type of experience they can expect.
Hospice care agencies in LA are seeing more patients than before due to people living longer and an increase in the aging population. The advanced medical facilities there only heighten the need for qualified groups to care for the terminally ill.
