VITAS Inpatient Hospice Unit

Specialties

When we don’t feel our best, most of us want to be at home, in familiar surroundings, with the people who care for and about us. That’s why VITAS Healthcare brings hospice services to our patients at home, whether they live in an apartment, the family home, an assisted living community, a nursing home or other housing for the elderly.

But sometimes a patient’s symptoms require more intense care than can be provided at home. That’s when VITAS offers inpatient hospice care.

VITAS has agreements with local facilities to provide a room and 24-​hour care for any VITAS patient who need inpatient hospice care. In addition, we own 34 VITAS inpatient hospice units across the country where our staff provides the same 24-​hour care available in our contract beds. Each unit is a homelike floor plan of cozy bedrooms, family room, kitchen, living room and more. Family can spend the night, warm up a favorite dish and bring visitors, including children and pets. The atmosphere is calm and quiet – often the opposite of a hospital or ICU. Our goal is to make sure patients feel at home while we stabilize their symptoms so they can return home.

History

Established in 1978.

VITAS® Healthcare cares for fragile patients and manages care transitions: from hospital to home, from curative to palliative, from chronic to end-​stage. Our name is derived from the Latin word for life and symbolizes the VITAS mission: to preserve the quality of life for those who have a limited time to live.

Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS has enjoyed dynamic growth since its founding as a volunteer organization by a United Methodist minister and a registered nurse.

Today, VITAS employs more than 11,000 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily – primarily in the patients’ homes, but also in the company’s inpatient hospice units as well as in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities/​residential care facilities. A VITAS hospice team can include a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, home health aide, physician, social worker, chaplain, bereavement manager, community volunteer and other caregiving professionals.