VITAS Inpatient Hospice Unit

We used Vita’s Hospice services when my father passed away in February 2001 at Baptist Hospital. The hospice services– in this private hospital were outstanding and very family supportive. Thank goodness I remember what Vita’s taught me about the dying process when we again called in Vita’s for hospice services in October 2015 for our mom. Our mom was admitted to Jackson South and Vita’s was called in when we were told that she would not wake up. As a psychologist and former employee of CHI– a jmh affiliate– I am so disgusted with the whole experience. We saw a different hospice nurse on each of the 5 days before my mom died. All Vita’s could do was push for her discharge home for hospice care– apparently a big priority for doing jmh’s bidding. We were given 3 different stories on whether mom could have morphine drip or just sublingual morphine. But the iv morphine was the only thing that kept her from screaming. No thanks to Vita’s for getting iv morphine drip started. I insisted on drip as advised by nurse– not Vitas– after spending a night at the hospital with mom screaming in pain all night. On the day before she died– yet another Vita’s nurse was pushing for discharge– giving yet a different report on if morphine drip at home– and dismissed my concern that she would suffer during move and not survive it. By the next day– mom’s blood pressure dropped and she showed fish out of water breathing– which thanks to Vita’s care we got in 2001– was a sign of imminent death. She died that evening but jmh south added insult to injury by conveying to funeral home that they could not get her body out of there fast enough. I was treated to sight of funeral home rushing in with stretcher to pick up the «body» before I was getting on elevator. I and my family are educated and were able to stand up for mom and advocate for without being intimidated by the system. But my biggest concern is the impoverished people that jmh serves while Vita’s will do whatever it takes to keep that contract at the expense of their patients.
Who will advocate for them??? Call me thoroughly disgusted with Vita’s!