Background: Compassion is thus considered fundamental in caring for patients, especially the elderly. However, healthcare providers still have difficulties in the provision of such care. Aim of study: to measure elderly patients' perception of compassionate care provided by nurses in Beni-Suef city. Subjects and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at Beni-Suef University Hospital, General Hospital, and Continuing/Long-term care and Home Health Care (HHC) services in Beni-Suef on 140 elderly receiving care in the setting for at least 3 days. An interview questionnaire form including the Compassionate Care Scale and the Opinions about Compassionate Care scale. The fieldwork lasted from January to June 2019. Results: Patients' age ranged between 60 and 88 years, median 65 years, 52.9% females (52.9%), mostly illiterate (77.9%), and having chronic diseases (87.9%). The majority had high opinions about compassionate care (82.9%). Regarding priorities of compassionate care, “understanding your problem" ranked first, while “no prejudice" ranked last. In multivariate analysis, patient education level and length of hospital stay were significant independent negative predictors of their compassionate care score. Conclusion and recommendations: The elderly patients in the study settings tend to have high perception and opinions regarding compassionate care, and this is influenced by their education, and the length of hospital stay. The study recommends that elderly patients' opinions about the nursing care regarding compassionate care be regularly surveyed. Further research is suggested to evaluate the impact of training interventions for nurses on elderly patients' opinions about compassionate care.