Vitas HealthcareReviews of vitas.com

No zero stars as an option. A sham. A waste of time. Pure garbage.

I made my concerns clear to the management team however nothing came of it. It started out well the first two weeks of at home care for my grandmother. That quickly changed as we constantly had different nurses assigned therefore no consistency for the patient nor the family. We would be told conflicting information by each nurse all the way up to her passing. It was an occasional occurrence but literally we saw a different nurse 2-3 times a week and was advised “I don’t know why they would tell you that because that isn’t right”…We were never provided guidance on how to do things such as appropriate method to move patient from bed to bedside commode, etc. We were left to searching YouTube to get guidance that we anticipated the agency to assist with. When we called after hours to ask questions it would take often times 3+ hours to get a call back. When you have a family member in pain and air gasping that is tooo long for a simple call back. On the day she passed VITAS didn’t even send out a nurse to pronounce the death, they sent a chaplain who was completely unaware of anything. In the state of FL it is against statute for a chaplain to pronounce death, must be a doctor or RN. Then took them over two weeks to sign death certificate for the funeral home which by law must be done in 72 hours. It was a circus to say the least. If I could do it over I would certainly have researched and went with Gulfside.

I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with the services provided by VITAS Healthcare Inc., primarily due to certain employees' reluctance to take responsibility for their actions and inactions. My mother has been experiencing persistent diarrhea as a result of the formula administered to her for several months, despite my repeated complaints. A dietitian was dispatched, but appeared to prioritize representing VITAS Healthcare's interests as a legal council over providing assistance to my mother. Charge Nurse Charlie declined to conduct blood labs for my mother, even after her primary care physician requested them in response to my mother’s headaches, sore and dry throat, and hallucinations. VITAS Healthcare initially refused to conduct the blood lab, prompting me to contact state officials and the corporate office to secure the local office's cooperation in ordering the labs. Following the eventual completion of the labs, the staff displayed a negative attitude towards me due to my contact with the corporate office and state officials. The lab results revealed that my mother was suffering from dehydration, which explained her symptoms. If they are unwilling to address my mother's symptoms, I will not hesitate to take further action by contacting state authorities and Vitas corporate office. I had previously reported one of their doctors for not providing my mother with the necessary care, but later dropped my complaint against that doctor; I am now reconsidering and contemplating resubmitting the complaint to state officials. Furthermore, I was shocked to discover that a sick staff member came to my mother's home to provide care. When I contacted Charlie, the team leader and nurse, some of Vitas Healthcare's staff expressed discontent towards me, stating that sick staff may not have sick time off and won't get paid, but they seemed unconcerned about my mother's potential exposure to illness. Please note that Vitas healthcare inc. does have some highly competent nurses and staff members.

My husband has mid to late stage Alzheimer's. They provide weekly visits, check vitals, provide pullups, wipes, also a home health aide for weekly shower..all of which is very nice and appreciated. They are all very kind. They also seem to have an extreme desire to order things so they can bill Medicaid. Just one example: the nurse asks about hallucinations because she said it's a UTI symptom. No other symptoms at all and they dont do a blood test. Our personal doctor did the test and no UTI but Vitas was going to order antibiotics without needing them. They are very free to order whatever they can bill Medicaid. I got a statement from Medicaid for 3 mo of their services, zero due from me but the total was nearly $10k, the services are not free and this is not discussed when you sign up. I do know Medicaid uses estate recovery so after the patient passes they will bill the estate. Thankfully we have a Life Estate Deed (Ladybird deed) which means there no 'estate'.

Can I take away stars? Vitas single handedly made my father’s dying THE MOST traumatic event of my life as well as my children's life. Not only did they send a nurse over that openly said she didn't know what to do when my father was actively dying. She crushed up pills and put them in water and put them in my dad’s mouth. And then let him try and walk to the bathroom. He died on the bathroom floor and I had to have my neighbor carry my dad’s dead body to the bed . I had to call 911. I missed my dad’s final moments because I was on the phone with 911. She left us there with my dads body, two hours before her shift was supposed to be over. I repeatedly asked for medical equipment, which was never brought, and I believe the lack of this equipment directly affected my dad's dignity in his death. They sent over people the next day to apologize and told me, when I asked, they had complaints about the nurse previously but it “hard to terminate minorities in California” . Stay far away from this company. Vitas, you will hear from me soon

The team that cared for my mother was outstanding. They genuinely treated my mom with kindness and compassion. From the nurses Hector and Amy to the social worker Anise. My mother was treated with dignity, even after her passing. Nicole was the nurse that pronounced her death and allowed me to be with my mother the entire process of preparing her to go to the funeral home. These staff members are truly Angels on the earth.

Serious issues with this hospice organization. Communication is poor, supply management is unreliable, and follow-through is lacking. Despite repeatedly stating that wound care was a primary and urgent need, supplies were delayed or not provided at all. We had to order essential wound care items ourselves on Amazon and pay for overnight shipping just to avoid running out. That should never happen in hospice care. Staff responsiveness has been inconsistent, and the visiting nurse demonstrated concerning incompetence. At this point, we are actively considering transferring to another hospice provider. This is a negligence issue that places patient safety and families at risk. Proceed with caution.

I am very upset with how Vitas and the nurses who were assigned to my mom dealt with the situation. We chose Vitas because her doctor recommended this option for us, and we trusted them. It should've been a bad sign already if they all of a sudden want to change the schedule they had agreed on. They even said how a nurse would come every day since we were doing hospice at home, and my mom was already nearing the end. The first day, which was the first nurse came in, but didn't care much about how her blood pressure wasn't being picked up by their device. It was more like they just took note that the patient would be dying soon instead. Also, not sharing all the possible options we could've ordered for my mom. Only the oxygen was ordered, and the medicine was given without clear instructions on how to use the pill when my mom can't even swallow it. The second day of my mom being in home hospice care, the second nurse we met was nice, though they still didn't care much about not being able to get a reading of the number for blood pressure. It wasn't too bad, but they were supposed to order the fever medicine as well, which came very late. The third day was terrible; the third nurse barely even checked anything at all, and even lied to my dad about checking when I was watching her every move. All they did was check the temperature and explained to me the same medicine I already knew how to use, plus it was very difficult to hear them with their accent and mask on. My dad even asked me if they really did check her properly, which they did not. The fourth day was the WORST experience we had dealing with Vitas. That fever medicine that should've come sooner came late, but there were no clear instructions on how to use it since it was also in pill form. Not only that, but the nurse who came on the second day never came on the day they were supposed to be scheduled. I personally had to call Vitas to ask where the nurse was, but they lied, telling us that the nurse would arrive in the next 2 hours, but they never did. Not only that, when my mom died, they were also late to arrive, and I had to call again to ask when the nurse was even coming. If you deeply care about your loved ones, please don't use Vitas and find other options, not just following your doctor's recommendation. Vitas from this experience has caused us a traumatic experience and shows a lack of urgency in situations. The medicine and nurses were always arriving late. They even told us that they are available 24/7 and will be on standby, which is completely untrue. No one came when it was really needed, and even so, the person to announce the death was late. Afterwards, they give you a death certificate, and there will be no other support; they do not care. Philadelphia, PA