Hospice is a facility or program designed to provide a caring environment for meeting the physical and emotional needs of the terminally ill. In 1974 there was one hospice program in the entire United States; today, there are more than 2,800 such programs.

Dying persons, their families, and caregivers can visit a broad range of Web sites to find information on hospice, palliative care, and guidance in end-of-life matters.

 Hospice Foundation of America

• HFA is a nonprofit organization that promotes hospice care and works to educate professionals and the families they serve in issues relating to caregiving, terminal illness, loss, and bereavement.
• Directed to a public audience.
• Comprehensive in scope, explaining the hospice concept; listing publications, articles, and press releases, and announcing an annual national teleconference.
• Enables searching of an end-of-life database.

• Presented by the National Library of Medicine as an authoritative source of consumer health information.
• Provides links to a variety of sites dealing with hospice and palliative care.
• Broad in scope, featuring dictionaries, directories, organizations, and statistics.
• Site is continuously updated.

• Sponsored by an authoritative professional medical association.
• Presents a Home Care Guide for Advanced Cancer for family, friends, and hospice workers caring for persons with advanced cancer at home, when quality of life is the primary goal.
• Provides a "Dying Person’s Guide" written by a physician who is terminally ill.
• Directed primarily to an audience of caregivers, explaining the various stages that precede death and how to recognize and deal with them.

• An independent, nonprofit organization funded entirely by unsolicited, private donations.
• Provides information and support for patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses.
• Offers readings on end-of-life issues specifically for patients, caregivers, and survivors.

• Sponsored by a trade association representing home care agencies, hospices, home care aid organizations, and medical equipment suppliers.
• The association represents its Locator as the most comprehensive database of home care and hospice agencies, listing more than 22,500 organizations.
• The section "How To Choose a Home Care Provider" offers advice to consumers.

• Includes relevant links for locating legislative/regulatory information, state agencies, and other sites related to home care and hospice.

• Professional organization of physicians from many medical specialties who are dedicated to furthering and fostering the practice of hospice/palliative care for the terminally ill and their families.
• Target audience of the Web site: physicians and other medical professionals in hospice and palliative medicine.
• Provides education and clinical practice standards, professional development, and public policy advocacy.

• The AHF is a charitable, nonprofit foundation advancing the hospice concept of care and promoting the hospice movement.
• Presents extensive links to hospices with Web sites, hospice resources, caregiving and advocacy resources, and charitable giving sites.
• Offers publications and workshops to the public.

• A nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all Americans can count on good end of life care.
• Announces upcoming events, conferences, and initiatives in hospice and palliative care.
• Directed to both public and health professional audiences.
• Offers an online forum for health professionals on end-of-life care.