VITAS® Healthcare, a pioneer and leader in the hospice movement since 1978, is the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS operates 44 hospice programs in 15 states and the District of Columbia. (Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin).
VITAS, which has evolved from its founding as a volunteer organization by a United Methodist minister and a registered nurse, today employs 11,788 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients’ homes, but also in the company’s 34 inpatient hospice units as well as in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities/residential care facilities for the elderly.
At the conclusion of the second quarter of 2015, VITAS reported an average daily census of 15,518; VITAS served more than 78,000 patients throughout all of 2014. The name, VITAS (pronounced VEE-tahs), is derived from the Latin word for lives. It symbolizes the VITAS mission: To preserve the quality of life for those who have a limited time to live.
