A driving force for advancement within the expanding hospice provider community, VITAS has built a reputation based on its ongoing embrace of patient care innovation and its legacy of advocacy for Medicare coverage, improved access to care, and cutting-edge technology. Its hospice solutions deliver results on two fronts by:

• Ensuring quality of life for advanced illness patients whose medical treatments are no longer effective or preferred
• Supporting healthcare partners’ goals of providing high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered care throughout the care continuum

The concept of an interdisciplinary hospice care team—physician, nurse, aide, social worker, chaplain, bereavement specialist, and volunteer—remains at the heart of our end-of-life care model.

This continued and sustained success is supplemented by initiatives that modernize hospice care and influence thinking about how other healthcare specialties can be delivered in patient and family’s preferred setting of care, and in accordance with their wishes and values.

These initiatives include:

• Virtual/augmented reality experiences and 5G mobile technology to ease the pain and anxiety of hospice patients in select markets.
• Alternative therapy services—such as music therapy and Paw Pals pet visits—to complement the care patients receive. Studies suggest that complementary and alternative therapies enhance the quality of care for patients nearing the end of life with the lessening of symptoms, including anxiety and pain, and improvements in mood and sense of control.
• Mobile clinical workstations for 8,000 clinicians who use company iPhones and iPads to enhance communications, orders, and interactions at the bedside. The mobile transformation of its workforce earned VITAS the 2018 Process Excellence Network Award from PEX.
• Telecare clinical support for a direct line to medical advice, support, and hands-on care, as appropriate, at any time of the day or night. A VITAS Telecare nurse answers each call and has access to patient files and the expertise to answer questions, provide medical advice or dispatch a team member to the bedside.
• A mobile app offering easy-to-use hospice resources for clinicians including robust eligibility information, easy and secure patient referral, in-app registration, and calendar reminders for VITAS webinars on end-of-life diagnoses and topics.
• Modern website with enhanced content for healthcare professionals. VITAS.com also supports patients and families and is available in many languages including Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

In 2018, VITAS celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special ceremony at the Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College. The iconic Miami landmark was illuminated purple to honor VITAS’ four decades of advancing the American hospice movement and compassionate care for hospice patients and families.

The undisputed influence of VITAS within the healthcare industry continues to grow, especially as it searches for and develops care models that balance modern medicine’s capabilities with the basic human desire of seriously ill patients to live as well as they can with dignity and compassion, all the way to the end of life.

A Values-Driven Healthcare Powerhouse

While much has changed in the hospice profession since 1978, four VITAS Values remain sources of inspiration for its employees:

• Patients and families come first.
• We take care of each other.
• I’ll do my best today and do even better tomorrow.
• I am proud to make a difference.