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There has been a growing interest and concern to Hospice in Korea since 1965, which was started by Catholic sisters for the first in Korea, however, hospice is still infant stage, also there has been no report summarizing about the present status of hospice. The authors interviewed people in charge of thirty-nine hospice centers, and also reviewed thirty-four papers published between 1984 and 1995. This study was carried out from March 4th to April 27th, 1996. The results of the interviews revealed 1. Hospice services were spread nationwidly and at least one hospice center is active in each province of Korea. 2. Most of hospice services were established in the 1987s and 1990s. 3. Type of hospices are : 7 Hospice Units are hospital based. There are scattering hospices in 16 hospitals. There are 5 hospital based home hospices and 7 independent home hospices. Occupation of people in charge of hospice services were: nurses 15, priest. ministers, catholic brothers & sisters 12, doctors 9. Religious background of hospice were : catholic 25, protestant 8. 4. Hospice services were supported by personal funds in 12, personal and administration funds in 11 and administration funds in 9 hospices. 5. Hospices have been running by a team approach all but 9 of the 39 centers. Twenty one centers had education /intervention programs, but only eight of these centers had a bereavement programs. Thirteen centers published an introductory brochure for public relations. The results of the review of the papers revealed 1. Among thirty four papers, twenty papers were published between 1991-1995, showing a gradual increase in the study of hospice in recent years. 2. The content of the papers were : research 19, article 13, case report 2. 3. The subject of these studies were : cancer patients who were in the terminal stage and their families in 9, hospice care in 14. Problems suggested by people in charge of hospice were : lack of concern about hospices among doctors, patients and their families and administration officials, poor facilities, financial deficit and a lack of man power. It has been proposed that governmental financial support as well as regulatory is necessary. Enhancement of public relations is also proposed for the development of hospices in Korea. Problems that was found in papers were lack of Public Relations, financial deficits, meagerness of research and of personnel. Financial and regulatory support from the government was strongly suggested. Other proposals were similar to the results from interviews with person in chrage of hospice service. Above results showed that there has been a consensus about the problems and proposals among the members of hospice services in Korea. And also improvement in understanding of hospice services as well as financial and regulatory support from the government is necessary for the development of hospice in Korea.
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