German Hospital-to-Hospice Transfer Statistics for 2023

15,656 hospital cases resulted in a transfer to an inpatient hospice in Germany during 2023. This aggregated data analyzes transfer rates by region, patient age, gender, and primary diagnosis, with over 75% of transfers involving patients aged 65 or older. The study was conducted by Christiane von Sass using nationwide hospital billing data.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional variation in transfer rates, comparing highest rates in Saarland (0.2%) to lowest in Bavaria (0.05%).
• Investigate the gender disparity in hospice transfers, where female patients comprised 53.6% of the cohort.
• Examine the correlation between regional hospice bed density and transfer rates, which had an R² of 0.65.
• Assess the prevalence of oncological diseases as the primary diagnosis, which accounted for 68.8% of transfer cases.

Strengths

• Provides a national benchmark with 15,656 documented hospital-to-hospice transfer cases.
• Offers detailed demographic breakdowns, including age (75% aged 65+), gender (53.6% female), and primary diagnosis (68.8% oncological).
• Includes strong regional analysis with transfer rates for specific states like Saarland and Brandenburg.

Limitations

• Dataset is very small (96.8 KB), containing only aggregated summary statistics, not individual patient records.
• Data is limited to a single year (2023), preventing longitudinal or trend analysis.
• The underlying raw data and specific column variables are not provided, limiting analytical flexibility.

Provenance

Source

Aggregated data from all German hospital stays reported under §21 of the Hospital Remuneration Act.

Collection Method

Cross-sectional analysis of nationwide hospital billing data.

Time Range

2023

Freshness

Data covers the 2023 calendar year and was last updated in March 2026.

Geography

Germany