VITAS Healthcare

After my last review I was contacted by a Vitals representative. She was very defensive. I thought this company was in the business of caring any comfort. We agreed that someone would visit my dying father three times a week. Someone was scheduled to come out the next day, Thursday and never showed up. I asked that the nurse and the hospice aid not come on the same day. She agreed, but guess what? They both showed up on the same day which was Friday.
Hospice is paid out in a bundle, hospice companies must manage these funds in order to make a profit. I get it. But everyone should know that we the customers have a choice per Medicare guidelines, so we chose to fire Vitas and replace them with another hospice company. Guess what? They scheduled the hospice aide the times a week plus a social worker came to help. The RN and LVN will also visit during the week. They scheduled volunteers to help sit with him while my mother his caregiver go to the grocery store. When we need help, a nurse answers the phone, not some service and it takes the nurse am hour to calm back.
I’m not a review person, but this hospice agency needs revamping. They sent out old broken equipment. A piece of the bed was broken, they simply taped it up Vs replacing it.
I’m sharing this horrible review in hope it will help someone when choosing a hospice agency to know they have a choice and these is something that can be done if you don’t like the care.

Very disappointed in their care. I was told information that was false to induce me to sign up for their service. If Vitas had been honest and upfront, I would not have wasted my time with this company. I was assured certain comforts were potentially available for my loved one, but I was later informed that the company NEVER provides such services. Vitas is not the type of company that I would want to deal with under difficult stressful circumstances. I would recommend doing your research before doing business with Vitas. However, the company was prompt about providing equipment in a prompt manner.

my wife has stage four terminal colon cancer. we decided to retain vitas.
at the intake /​assessment we listed all her ailments which besides the cancer included dementia, Parkinsons plus, and diabetes. these were written down.
about a month before i had heard about hemp oil cbd eradicating cancer, and seen many videos on YouTube about this, what do we have to lose?
i started her on it.
two weeks after retaining vitas they put her in a full time care center in hospice care. this was about 2 months ago. i managed to get them to dispense the hemp oil in capsule form. 3 weeks ago i received a call from the hospice nurse at the care center my wife was delusional and out of control, please get here asap. she was having hallucinations that the the police were breaking down her door. the nurse said this is caused by the hemp oil, i said it is not, its a natural herb with no inert ingredients. she then said shes going to double the dose of seroquel, i knew they were giving her antivan but 1^st i heard of this. they were supposed to keep me posted on all drugs she was taking and didn’t. that afternoon i researched that drug and found you never give that to a dementia patient, it will cause immediate heart failure and combined with antivan enhances a dementia patients disillusions. they knew she had dementia. i immediately called this nurse and demanded she stop all drugs now. i got resistance at first but she reluctantly agreed. then i asked to start up the hemp oil. she said no. i told her how its helping her tremendously, her mobility is improving, even the cna’s are amazed, her comment «we are not in the business of saving lives» true, but very insensitive. i got her status changed to skilled nursing. they almost killed my wife by prescribing the wrong drug. and i was astounded by such a heartless cold statement «we are not in the business of saving lives» maybe your not but i am.

My Mom died in October 2014 after being on the program for only one week. The care they gave was excellent. They were timely in seeing us, provided us with 24 hour care because she was actively dying. Everyone was very loving and compassionate. Thank you for making our last journey with our mother as smooth as possible.

I own a business. We refer all hospice cases to Vitas. The main reason being 1: response time. They guarantee intake within something like 3.5 hours. 2: attentiveness. Vitas has never let us down. They are on top of things and they’re always available if you need them.

I worked for this hospice, I loved doing what I did, but will never again work for a hospice that puts profits before patients. Never. I saw their tactics and decision making to be completely determined by money and the shareholders. Please, research the hospice you choose and make sure that it is a non profit organization. The difference can not be described in words.

This Vitas Hospice services San Bernardino County cities. We experienced problems with:
The RN assigned to our case– she had multiple complaints prior, but Vitas was still sending her out to make huge, unethical errors.
Lack of communication and disorganized. The problems especially occurring with transition from hospital to home hospice care.
New supervisor they sent out seemed irritated about the situation. It wasn’t our family’s fault they had a terrible RN assigned to us initially and now they had to do cleanup work.
Didn’t fully explain how to use equipment where patient suffered.
Didn’t assess patient (even new supervisor) and give us correct medication that effected patient when she arrived home.
Three times (by three different people, and three different issues) «misled» and essentially lied to the family, which caused the patient to suffer in two of them. The third was lack of follow through for the family.
a) that they could not get medical equipment that day
b) that the CVS they worked with did not give liquid morphine, this might be true, but hospice orders the liquid morphine from other places
c) the Chaplin said he would be out the next morning to talk with family but never came
One of the nurses very pushy with religious thoughts. Something I was under the impression that hospice is not to do. They should be very respectful at such a vulnerable time as a patient approaches death.
The ONLY reason I am giving them two stars is because there were two nurses that helped. The one who had liquid meds ordered ASAP. She advocated a lot for the patient and tried to undo the problems the other staff caused in their lies and laziness. The second nurse, there at the time my grandma passed, was by far very compassionate and loving. She was very professional and sensitive to needs of the family in our heartache.
Hopefully this gives one enough detail to make some considerations before using this hospice. I only hope no one EVER goes through the heartache I endured not only from losing my loved one, but because I had to fight them for ethical care of my grandma. No one should have to do that, ever. I only pray that my grandma is now out of the pain I know she had to endure because of people who didn’t do their jobs. May she rest in peace. I love her very much.