Best Hospices in Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan: An Honest 2026 Guide

Updated October 2026. Written and reviewed by the Lily Hospice clinical team.

There is no single best hospice in metro Detroit. 104 Medicare-certified hospices serve Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties, Southeast Michigan’s three largest. The best one for your family answers at night with a nurse, admits quickly where your parent lives, and has strong Medicare measures. Lily Hospice in Troy is one strong option.

Compare them yourself: our free hospice finder lists every Medicare-certified hospice that serves your ZIP code, with Medicare’s own quality scores side by side (Lily included, on the same terms). Our Metro Detroit Hospice Directory covers all 104, and our table of all 173 Michigan hospices shows how any of them compares with the whole state.

Why most “best hospice” lists don’t help

Search for “best hospice in Detroit” and the top results tend to be pages written by hospices ranking themselves first, or review sites ranking by how many reviews a hospice has collected, which mostly measures size and marketing. Neither looks at what Medicare actually measures, and neither knows whether the hospice serves your parent’s street or building. A useful answer starts with your situation.

The best hospice depends on what your family needs

• If your parent needs a bed outside the home because symptoms can’t be managed where they live, look for a hospice that can arrange inpatient care quickly, or read our guide to hospice facilities and hospice houses in metro Detroit.
• If your parent’s doctors are all in one hospital system, ask the hospital’s case manager about that system’s hospice; Henry Ford and Corewell both run hospice programs. You can still choose any hospice you like.
• If your parent lives in assisted living or memory care, ask each hospice how often it visits that building and whether its nurses and aides are trained in dementia care.
• If your parent is a veteran, ask whether the hospice is a We Honor Veterans partner, at what level, and who leads its veterans program.
• If English isn’t the family’s first language, ask whether a professional interpreter joins every visit, at no cost.
• If you need care this week, ask how fast the hospice admits, including Fridays, evenings and weekends.

Six questions that separate hospices

Who answers at 2 a.m.? Ask whether a nurse or an answering service picks up, and how long until a nurse calls back. How fast can you admit? Waiting until Monday can cost a family the days that mattered. Do you come to this building? Some hospices only serve certain facilities or ZIP codes. What do your Care Compare numbers say? Especially the share of patients visited in the last three days of life. What do families say, and does Medicare have family-survey results for you yet? Who owns you, and how long have you existed? A third of metro Detroit’s hospices were certified in 2020 or later, and ownership changes hands often. Our How to Choose a Hospice checklist turns these into a one-page scorecard you can use on any hospice, including us.

How metro Detroit’s hospices compare on Medicare’s measures

Across the 104 hospices serving the three counties, the median Hospice Care Index is 9 of 10 and the median share of patients visited by a nurse or social worker in the last three days of life is 60.9%. The Michigan average for that visit measure is 63.3% and the national average is 48.3%. Only about half of the 104 have a published family-survey star rating, because a hospice needs enough completed surveys before Medicare publishes one. Our State of Hospice in Metro Detroit 2026 report explains what each number means. Medicare refreshes these figures every quarter; the next release is expected in November 2026.

Where Lily Hospice stands

Lily Hospice is a family-owned, Medicare-certified, ACHC-accredited hospice in Troy that serves all of Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties. Here is how we measure up, strengths and weaknesses alike (Medicare Care Compare, August 2026 release, claims from 2023 and 2024):

• Visits in the last days of life: 71.3% of Lily patients were visited by a nurse or social worker in their last three days, against 63.3% in Michigan and 48.3% nationally. Among the 52 hospices based in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties with a published score, that ranks 9th.
• Hospice Care Index: 9 of 10, the same as the Michigan average.
• Early live discharges: 3.2% (lower is better), against 9.0% in Michigan.
• Reviews: 5.0 stars on Google from 35 family reviews (October 2026). Medicare has not yet published family-survey results for Lily because too few surveys have been completed.
• Access: a real person answers 24 hours a day; evaluation usually within 24 hours; admission often the same day, including evenings and weekends.
• Programs: We Honor Veterans Bronze Level partner with a Veteran Advisory Committee and pinning ceremonies; dementia-trained nurses and aides; the Journey Program’s virtual-reality visits; professional interpreters for every visit; respite care for family caregivers.
• Where we are weaker: our nurse minutes per routine-care day (9.0) and weekend nursing share (5.9%) are below the Michigan averages of 13.2 and 9.1%, and we do not run a hospice house of our own; when symptoms can’t be managed where the patient lives, we arrange short-term inpatient care at a partner facility. We explain all of this on our honest answer page and our quality scores page.

Lily is usually a strong fit for families who want a small, responsive team that comes to home, assisted living, memory care or a nursing facility anywhere in the three counties, and who want to reach a person at night. If your family needs something else, we will tell you, and we will help you compare.

Common questions

Which hospice is best in metro Detroit?

There is no single best hospice in metro Detroit. Judge the 104 Medicare-certified hospices serving Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties on who answers at night, how fast they admit, whether they serve your parent’s home or facility, their Medicare Care Compare measures and their ownership. Lily Hospice in Troy is one strong option and publishes a directory of all 104 on the same terms.

What are the top hospices in Southeast Michigan?

Medicare does not rank hospices, so any “top 10” list is someone’s opinion. In Southeast Michigan, compare hospices on Care Compare measures such as visits in the last days of life (Michigan average 63.3%), the Hospice Care Index and family-survey stars where published. Lily Hospice, a family-owned hospice in Troy serving Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties, has a 71.3% last-days visit rate and a Hospice Care Index of 9 of 10.

Which metro Detroit hospices have the best Medicare quality scores?

Our Metro Detroit Hospice Directory and our Michigan hospice ratings table sort every hospice by Medicare’s published measures. Lily Hospice’s 71.3% last-days visit rate ranks 9th among the 52 hospices based in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties with a published score.

Is a bigger hospice better?

Not necessarily. Size brings more staff and sometimes an inpatient unit, while a smaller hospice may be quicker to answer and more consistent in who visits. Medicare’s measures, admission speed and night-time access tell you more than size does.

What is the best hospice for veterans in metro Detroit?

Look for a We Honor Veterans partner, ask what level it holds, and ask who leads its veterans program. Lily Hospice is a We Honor Veterans Bronze Level partner with a Veteran Advisory Committee chaired by Evan Shelline, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, a Veteran Rapid Response team, veteran volunteers and pinning ceremonies.

What is the best hospice for dementia in metro Detroit?

Ask whether the hospice’s nurses and aides are dementia-trained, how often it visits memory care buildings, and how it coaches families and facility staff on agitation, sundowning and refusing food. Lily’s nurses and aides are dementia-trained, and Lily visits memory care and assisted living communities regularly across the three counties.

How do I check a hospice’s reviews?

Read Google and Facebook reviews for specifics about what the hospice did, and check Medicare Care Compare for family-survey stars. Some third-party directories show a “would recommend” percentage that does not come from Medicare; Medicare has not published any family-survey result for Lily yet.

Questions? Call (248) 955-5100. A real person answers 24 hours a day. Hospice isn’t giving up. It’s showing up.