Hospice technology maturity survey

In 2025, hospice leaders demonstrate a stronger understanding of how technology can improve services, with 81% recognising its strategic value. More hospices also say digital has become a higher priority over the last year. 

However, only 43% have a clear, measurable technology plan understood across their organisation. This is a notable improvement from 23% in 2024, but regular review remains a challenge, with Board/Senior Management oversight largely unchanged. 

This suggests a growing appetite for digital transformation, but leadership routines and structures need to develop to support it fully. 

The 2025 data highlights increasing investment, supported by national capital funding. Larger hospices continue to have larger digital teams, but this does not always correlate with higher levels of digital maturity. 

Key trends include: 

• Higher spending on digital among hospices in the Advancing and Advanced categories.
• Greater reliance on outsourced IT support, particularly among smaller hospices.
• Capacity continues to be a limiting factor for many hospices. 

In comparison to 2024, more hospices are directing budget into digital improvements, but resource limitations remain a key barrier to accelerating progress.

Digital skills continue to be a stubborn challenge for the sector. While many hospices invest in training, confidence with technology has not significantly improved since 2024. 

Key findings include: 

• Only 13% say colleagues and volunteers are confident technology users (unchanged from 2024).
• Less than half expect new recruits to have strong digital skills, though this is slightly up from last year.
• Many hospices do not feel they have the right mix of technical skills in their teams. 

Despite this, the 2025 survey shows increasing effort to embed structured learning, IT induction, and wider digital upskilling, laying vital groundwork for future progress. 

The overall IT landscape remains stable, with similar systems in place across finance, CRM, retail and HR as in 2024. However, there are small signs of diversification, including growing uptake of tools used in other sectors. 

• Most hospices continue using Sage for finance, Donorfy/Beacon/Access CRM systems, and SystmOne or EMIS for patient management.
• Cloud adoption continues to rise, with 77% either fully or mostly cloud based, but legacy on-premise systems remain a barrier for some.
• Integration remains the biggest technical hurdle, with only 5% reporting fully integrated systems. 

Compared to 2024, systems themselves haven’t changed much, but hospices report stronger intent and more investment aimed at improving how systems work together.