Objectives: Hospice-palliative care focuses on improving the quality of end-of-life care and respecting patient’s preferences regarding end-of-life care and treatment. The effect of coronavirus disease 2019 and 2020 on the utilization of hospice-palliative services (home care and inpatient care) are unknown in Hungary. The goals to investigate the utilization of hospice-palliative care services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020.

Methods: Every year, the Hungarian Hospice-Palliative Association (MHPE) and the National Health Insurance Fund Management (NEAK) present a national picture of the operation of hospice services. We request the following objective data from the NEAK and from the hospice services: Number of cases/ patients treated, number of institutional hospice days, average care day, average institutional cost per day, bed occupancy rate, average cost of institutional care per case, cancer proportion of patients, number of patients who died in a hospice, BNO code of the most common diagnoses. Regarding home hospice care, day of care, mortality rate at home, distribution of occupational activities, proportion of cancer patients, number of employees employed, BNO code of the most common diagnoses. We compare the 2 years of the pandemic (2019 and 2020).

Results: The mortality rate for patients receiving hospice care decreased by 14% (p=0.68) between 2019 and 2020. This assumes that palliative patients did not die in specific hospice care, despite an increase of nearly 7% (p=0.029) in the number of patients receiving hospice care. However, bed occupancy in hospital hospice wards decreased significantly from 83.6% before the epidemic to 71.2% (p=0.036) during the epidemic.

Conclusions: This study suggests that hospice home care services were maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the utilization of hospice inpatient care services reduced. Home care for hospice patients is an essential component of palliative care during a pandemic.