Grace Hospice and Palliative Care LLC

After a death, CMS sends a standardized survey to the primary family caregiver of a sample of each hospice's patients, asking what the experience was really like: did the team help with pain and symptoms, did they communicate, did they come when you needed them, did they treat your person with respect, and did they support you emotionally and spiritually. Those answers are reported as 'top-box' percentages — the share of families who gave the most positive answer. It measures the family's experience, which is much of what hospice is about, but it can't capture everything, and grieving families answer through the lens of the hardest days.

What to do with this: read these numbers next to how many families answered — a score built on a handful of surveys is a hint, not a verdict.

Not every family is surveyed, and not everyone responds. When too few families complete the survey, CMS suppresses the scores and shows a footnote instead of a number — that footnote is CMS's own words, shown here verbatim. A hospice with 'Not reported' survey scores is not a bad hospice; it usually means it's small, new, or served fewer patients in the survey period. Absence of a score is never a mark against a hospice.

What to do with this: if the survey is blank, lean on the quality measures below and — most of all — on the conversation you have with the team.

This is the closest thing to an overall grade families give: the percent who, asked to rate the hospice from 0 to 10, chose a 9 or a 10. It rolls a lot together — the nurse who called back, the aide who was gentle, whether help came at 2 a.m. Compared to the state and national averages shown beside it, it tells you how this hospice's families felt relative to others.

What to do with this: use it as a starting temperature, then ask the hospice what families most often thank them for, and what they're working to do better.

Comfort is the core promise of hospice — managing pain, breathlessness, nausea, restlessness. This measure captures how often families felt that promise was kept. It depends on the team's skill and on how quickly they respond when something changes, which is why it moves together with the timely-help measure.

What to do with this: ask how the team assesses and adjusts pain medicine, and what they do when the first plan isn't working.

In hospice, timing is everything — a symptom at night, a fall, a sudden change. This measure captures how often families felt the team responded when they needed it. It's one of the most practical numbers here, because the hardest moments rarely happen during business hours.

What to do with this: ask exactly who you call after hours, how fast a nurse can come to the home, and whether a nurse can visit at night.

Hospice cares for the family, not only the patient — before and after the death. This measure captures whether families felt supported emotionally and spiritually, in whatever way mattered to them. It includes the chaplain, the social worker, and the bereavement support that continues for months after.

What to do with this: ask what grief and bereavement support looks like for the family, and for how long after, so you know it's there before you need it.

Alongside the family survey, CMS reports clinical quality measures for each hospice. Most are 'process' measures: did the team do the recommended thing — screen for pain, assess it properly, screen for shortness of breath and treat it, ask about and document treatment preferences and beliefs. Because most are reported by the hospice about its own care, they tend to run very high (often above 95%), so small differences matter more than they look. The most meaningful one for families is often the visits-in-the-last-days measure, which reflects showing up when it counts most.

What to do with this: don't over-read a 98 vs a 99. Look for numbers that fall clearly below the national average, and ask the team about those.

This measure counts how often a hospice sent a nurse or aide to see the patient in the final days — the time when symptoms often change fast and families feel most alone. Unlike the process measures, this is closer to an outcome: it reflects staffing, on-call coverage, and priorities. National numbers sit around the high 40s, so this is one measure where there's real spread between hospices.

What to do with this: ask directly how often someone will visit as things change near the end, and whether that includes nights and weekends.