A new report gives Missouri some low marks for how people who are terminally ill and dying are treated. The group “Last Acts” gives Missouri near-failing grades for the number of nurses trained in care for the terminally ill – called palliative care – and the number of hospitals offering palliative care programs, near-failing marks for use of hospice care by Missourians, and Last Acts’ Judy Peres says a “D” for the number of people in the state allowed to die at home. The report gave the state an “E,” lower than a “D” but not quite an “F,” in self-reporting palliative care programs in hospitals. One piece of good news for Missouri out of this report – the state’s pain policies support care for the terminally ill. It gets a grade of “B.”
