The nation has improved its overall grade on providing hospital-based palliative care to a B, up from a C in 2008.

The higher grade is due to a 19% rise in the number of hospitals with palliative care teams since 2008, according to a report released in October. The number of 50-plus bed hospitals with palliative care teams has nearly tripled since 2000 to 63%, said the research conducted by the Center to Advance Palliative Care, a New York nonprofit that helps hospitals set up palliative care operations. Eighty-five percent of hospitals with 300 beds or more have such teams in place, the report said.

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