Unlikely way to cut hospital costs: comfort the dying. Palliative-care unit offers painkillers and support; fewer tests, treatments.

Palliative care focuses on comfort, not cure. It tries to relieve a patient's physical and psychological distress, instead of preserving life at any cost. Though palliative care is standard practice in some countries, especially in Britain, it has been slow to catch on in the U.S., where many doctors prefer to use the latest technology or drug to prolong a patient's life, if only for a few months. Fewer than 20% of community hospitals in the U.S. use the approach, according to the American Hospital Association.