Vitas Healthcare Reviews 53

The hospital my father was in recommended Vitas and I wish I had done more research. Do not use this company if you care about your loved one and your peace of mind. My father was in their care for no less than 4 days when on New Year's Eve, Vitas failed to send my father's scheduled night nurse. We were not given ANY notice or head's up and by the time we figured it out, it was way too late to try to hire a private nurse to come care for him. This company obviously sells itself with a great marketing scheme through hospitals and nursing facilities promising "comfort" and the best care for patients, but then they do whatever they want. they are disorganized and inefficient with no communication or order. we ended up buying all the care products ourselves bc Vitas never sent any of the items they said we were supposed to receive from them. These difficult times when you are the most vulnerable, sad and exhausted, Vitas is taking advantage of people with their marketing bait and switch. They should not be offering 24 hr care if they are unable to provide it. Excuses and apologies do not help our loved ones be ok.

Worst care ever! The team nurse was nice, but the call response time was not what they promised. The doctor only came out to see my dad once since we signed up in August. He was in so much pain and they scanned him for a blood clot. We were told that he didn't have a blood clot. We ended up calling 911 and were told by the ER that he had two blood clots. They do anything they can to treat what's going on to make him uncomfortable. There is not enough space to list all the broken promises presented at admission. DO NOT USE

Unfortunately my brother in law passed away yesterday morning I wanted to express how I thought Vitas was a good company but it turned out to be a horrible experience you never yell at the family member you are supposed to show love care and respect I was yelled at by the nurse I put her on speaker phone so my husband could hear we fired them immediately ! Also my brother in law kept pulling on his foley catheter we asked them to check it numerous times when the new company took over they found that my brother in law had a 30 cc saline balloon instead of a 10 cc balloon he was in so much pain they are horrible ! the bath nurse was great until she found some crumbs on my brother in laws back she would get mad and throw them on the floor the other physical therapist that we had to wait for months finally shows up drives over an oil pan gets oil all over the driveway as she puts her foot into the pan to try to move it I asked her what she was doing and she yelled i'm not comming in with your attitude we fired this company and went with a much better qualified company who gave my brother in law and us the care we needed and deserved even if it was only 2 months with the new company he passed away peaceful and with the dignity he deserved I would stay clear away from these so called people who say they care they are horrible it makes me happy to write this review and fight for my family member trust me please it's never too late to switch to another company especially if you want the care you deserve

Nurse comes 3 times a week and is great. However, a few times they sent different nurses who had zero idea how to use a wound vac even though they said they did - result was severe breakdown of skin and infection to wound. Respite care is never available. One lovely woman comes once a week to shave my husband, cut is hair, otherwise I get no aides or help from them. (I do get 28 hours/week from VA - that is when, at age 75 and recovering from cancer I go to work, shop, run errands.) They do not provide enough meds to allow husband (and therefore, myself) to sleep through the night. They always have an excuse why they cannot follow through on promised care.

I'm sorry reading the different reviews of people that are used Vitas. I have my best positive side this company, the nurses, doctor, Social Worker helping my husband in all. Maylyn Gonzalez RN is the nurse de my husband a U.S army veteran of 93 years old, she checks my husband each she can come home, take your supplies, help me, his wife with the medications that I need give him all the week, because my time is to help my husband with the rest of needed. Many friends know that my husband is under Hospice program and in good hands team de Vitas. They are very friendly, and honest. Area of the Villages of Belvedere Manor Downs.

If I could give this company a -0000 I would!!!! I have been grieving & am just now getting to this review. I have dealt w/ this company 2x's for 2 different people. They initially cared for my mom in 2019. At that time I THOUGHT they were wonderful & a caring company. In Sept 2023, while another loved one was being cared for, I requested the records from the time my mother was in their care. I have provided requested information & made requests more times than I can count!! Initially I was even told they had NOT cared for my mother!!😖 Eventually I was told the records were "in storage & had to be retrieved". It is a year later & I STILL do NOT have ANY of my mother's records!!

To make matters worse, after my 2nd loved one died in Nov 2023, I immediately requested the records. When I received THOSE records I saw where a point system was used to rate the importance of care by each individual providing the care. For this loved one, the CHAPLAIN had given a rating of (0!!!!) for importance of care or followup and I rcvd a low rating as a family member! THAT'S DESPICABLE! Especially when my loved one was in too much pain to speak at the initial visit & had been told she would be back. My loved one had continued to request to see the Chaplain. I was told NUMEROUS times she would be back, SHE NEVER WAS!!!! I initially went to VITAS for help as my loved one needed Hospice, was in jail on false charges awaiting trial, & the jail was not getting him the care he needed. Another Hospice denied treatment as they did not have a "contract" w/ the jail so it was left there. I explained the situation to VITAS & even though they had no experience dealing w/ a jail, they agreed there was no issue & they would definitely help. Initially they were great & "advocated" for what was needed. As my loved one got worse, it became a nightmare as they did NOT do what "Hospice" is supposed to. I was even told by the local director I should "just accept the situation for what it was." She told me I was being "hostile & pushy" for trying to get things desperately needed for my DYING loved one. Please note, NOTHING out of the ordinary was being requested! I'm even referring to food/Ensure a dying person needs, as well as I was asking them to VERIFY he was getting pain medication I was aware he was not. At one point I made them aware of a situation which they totally ignored & turned into an emergency! There is SO MUCH more I could put in this review! I also tried calling & reaching out to their corporate office NUMEROUS times, but they refused to speak to me & referred me back locally. The attorney even made a comment to me that what he saw was NOT hospice & "Animals are treated better" than what he witnessed! I WAS able to get my loved one home 5 days before he died, so he died at home. VITAS came to the house to set things up, but didn't do much more. I realized, too late, I had NOT even been given some important instructions or equipment I should have had. I discovered this as I called them on a weekend begging for help as my loved one was gasping for air. The nurse on the phone began argueing w/ me about equipment I should have been given, instead of sending help. He died while I was on the phone w/ her & it took well over an hour for a nurse to show up after that. In the end, I regretted ever asking VITAS for help! I was so WRONG about them! I did encounter a couple people that "seemed to care", but overall, this company does NOT care about your loved one, only $$$$$$$!!!😖😖😖😢

Asked me to leave because I was "crying too much" and it was upsetting others. When I asked to stay for a little longer because this seemed to be goodbye they said they would remove me via security.

I was very satisfied with the previous hospice care provider Covenant, prior to being bought out by Vitas. My mother was seeing a caregiver (nurse or tech) 3 times a week. Since Vitas took over she has received zero care. None. She and I are very displeased with their service and would recommend anyone considering Hospice care from this organization to run away, as fast as you can. If this is how we treat our seniors, especially those at the end of their lives, then I wonder where we have gone wrong as a society. My mother was a nurse for 35 years, caring for those to the best of her ability who were in their worst situation. And this is how she is thanked. I am in such disbelief I feel I'm beside myself. Run away. Run far, far away from Vitas.

My mother passed away at the end of July 2023 and it has taken me this long to write this review because I was hoping my anger would subside but it hasn't and I just want to warn others to NOT use Vitas Healthcare. The care facility where my 101 year old mother resided recommended Vitas. In hindsight I wish I had done my own research. I was sold on their "comfort care" which, if the time came, would provide pain relief for my mother in terms of drugs such as morphine. It would be available immediately upon request. On a Friday at 11:00 am my mother began experiencing horrible pain. I requested a pain killer or morphine (it was that bad). Hours went by as I held my mother's hand as she pleaded with me to die because the pain was that bad. I made several trips to the nurses' station and they too were unable to reach Vitas. I called Vitas myself in tears for someone to help me get her relief. To make a very long story short, the morphine was not delivered to my mother until 8:00 pm that night! My poor mother suffered horribly for over 9 hours unnecessarily because of Vitas Healthcare. I suffered horribly watching my mother be in agony and there was absolutely nothing I could do. Days later the Vitas nurse assigned to my mother, who was totally missing in action that entire Friday, visited my mother and proclaimed that she was comfortable. What?? She finally shows up days later, now that my mother is under a heavy dose of morphine, and almost makes the remark as if saying "what was all the fuss about?" When I finally reached someone on the following day and told my story she were horrified. She told me she would find out what happened and get back to me. She never did. I'm sure they were told to circle the wagons and not give me any information as further phone calls went unreturned. Then they sent in the religious calvary. I am not religious nor was my mother and I didn't request that anyone from that department contact me, but she did and told me to let it go. Let it go?? To this day, I am haunted by the entire experience. I had so hoped my mother would have passed in her sleep, but to go through excruciating pain because of Vitas Healthcare, the company that we hired to make sure she never was in pain, was unbelievable. I am so sorry that I hired them, that I didn't do my own research as I would have found others with similar horror stories and gone with another company. Again, please do not use them. If this review keeps one family from suffering like we did at the hands of Vitas' neglect, it will make me feel so much better.

I preface my critique of Vitas with this. Both of my grandparents were both on hospice with other companies, so I am familiar with how a competent company operates.

Vitas was anything but competent. I will not write a novel on the topic, but please consider other companies before choosing these scam artists.

Whenever, I think about my experience with Vitas, the first thing that comes to mind is how inefficient the entire staff was from the nurses to the social worker to the bath aides and the administration. They were all basically full of lies and deception. After I began to express my frustration, one of the nurses finally told me, in confidence, that the company continues to sign up new clients knowing that they are severely understaffed.

My father's incontinence supplies were always late and I had to remind them every week to bring supplies, and they would always tell me that the person ordering supplies forgot. So I would have to pay out of pocket for supplies nearly the entire time my father was on hospice.

Another major issue was scheduling. Vitas was notorious for not showing up for scheduled visits and when I called to find out why, the lead nurse would always pretend to act shocked. They were all so phony and clearly did not truly care about my father's healthcare. Apparently all the company was concerned with was collecting a check from Medicare.

The social worker was unqualified and disingenuous. In fact, instead of relieving my stress, Vitas added tremendously to the challenges that I was already facing from being my father's caregiver.

I had to constantly remind the bath aides how to thoroughly clean my father, and more times than I can remember, my father was left with dirt visible on his skin. However, what's most unbelievable and most disgusting is when I told one of their nurses about it, the nurse asked me was I sure that it wasn't normal for an African-American person's pigment to rub off when they are washed. I just couldn't believe it.

Needless to say, after that comment, I immediately began the process to terminate my relationship with Vitas. Also, each time either my father or grandparents were discharged from hospice, the company always sends out a survey, Conveniently, I never received any correspondence from Vitas after our relationship ended.

I have been busy traveling over the last few months, hence my delayed review but I will also be filing a complaint with the BBB and other government entities to make them aware of the horrible service my father received during a time when he was supposed to be comforted.

A family member is using Vitas Healthcare for their services and unfortunately, they are not having a positive experience. While they advertise 24-hour assistance, I found that they were not able to respond promptly to my calls or inquiries with the excuse that they where in a meeting. This was frustrating and left me feeling unsupported during a difficult time.

In addition, several appointments that were changed without notice or rescheduled without any noticed. This caused rearrange the schedule for a very sick person and was inconvenient.

Overall, we found that the service provided by Vitas Healthcare was not as promised. It appeared that they may be understaffed or overextended, which resulted in poor communication and lack of support.🙁

Vitas Healthcare
Orlando, Florida

I've been contemplating this letter since Roy, my late Father-in-Law passed on September 15, 2021. As you can see it's taken me some time to complete; even now I doubt you will appreciate the perspective of our family.

You are running a business, and some of the things you do are timely and effective; however, given that this was before the Pandemic became widespread, your company may not even be the same organization it was at that time, and has likely only gotten worse. My chief complaint is that you employ far too many individuals who are inadequately trained and are easily intimidated by the attending physician. Such was the case with my Father-in-Law's hospice care.

I made the decision to initiate hospice when, after managing his healthcare for five years, Roy developed Weeping Lymphedema as a result of his Congestive Heart Failure and Chronic Kidney Disease. I knew his kidneys were failing.

When your case worker arrived to initiate this service Roy was having a great day, sitting on a love seat next to his wife and daughter, eating a Wendy's sandwich and chattering like a jaybird. Unfortunately, this did not reflect the extremely difficult night before when he'd been in excruciating pain and kept everyone awake all night. The takeaway: The morphine dosage you subsequently prescribed was the absolute minimum.

That night he was again in excruciating pain. Calls for assistance yielded nothing, and when someone finally arrived the next morning she was a novice who was intimidated by the doctor. This would continue to be the case until I had you move him from his upstairs condo, with great difficulty, to your facility in Winter Garden to titrate his morphine dosage. He was heavily sedated but I knew I did not want him to die in that terrible place. I spoke at length with his nurse and gave her my cell phone number. Just as I was preparing to go there the following morning she called and advised me that he was running out of time. I am eternally grateful for her attentiveness.

Your protocols would not allow the movement of your hospital bed in his condo to my house in the time I feared Roy had remaining so I enlisted the help of a friend and moved it myself. Roy arrived at my house in the early afternoon of September 14th and died shortly after midnight September 15, 2021.

Suzette, the lady who attended him in our home for the last dozen hours of his life was absolutely the very best possible representative for you company. From St Lucia as I recall, she was lovely, caring and professional, and in all honesty could not have done anything better. Had those who came to his condo been this well trained your company would be superlative. Unfortunately, she and the nurse at your clinic were the only two healthcare workers who met my expectations.

This is as trying an experience as most people face in their lives unless they see combat in the military or are first responders. It will always be difficult for hospice workers to satisfy families about to lose their loved ones. You must do better or, in the age of social media, suffer along with us.

W J E