VITAS Healthcare

My mom was in their hospice care in her last days. Nurse Ellie and her team were empathic, professional and provided great care for my mom and us. They helped us through this very difficult, dark time. I’m very grateful for their care and support.

The BEST hospice team in the DMV VITAS Hospice is truly exceptional. I recommend them 100% without hesitation. As a healthcare professional who collaborates with multiple hospice agencies, I can say confidently that VITAS delivers the highest quality service with compassion, responsiveness, and genuine care. They don’t just provide hospice care—they show up like family. Their team consistently goes above and beyond: 🩺 Cecelia & Jen — phenomenal nurses. Compassionate, clinically strong, and incredibly attentive to residents and families. Their communication is excellent and their bedside manner is unmatched. 🙏 Crawford — in my opinion, the BEST chaplain in the entire DMV, hands down. He pours his heart into his role, advocates for patients and families, and provides meaningful spiritual support. He is amazing to collaborate with, incredibly authentic, and someone I’ve been grateful to form a true friendship with. A complete professional and a remarkable human being. 📋 Matineh — outstanding case manager and nurse. She is dependable, responsive, and always ensures urgent needs are addressed promptly. Any time I had a concern or question, she took care of it without hesitation. 🤝 Sydney — their clinical liaison, and someone I absolutely adore. We built a strong professional relationship and genuine friendship. She visits weekly to ensure my residents are well cared for and that I have everything needed to keep operations smooth. Her dedication and follow-through are unmatched. ❤️ Valerie — truly one of the kindest souls and the BEST social worker in the DMV. She supports families with empathy, clarity, and unwavering professionalism. I refer to this group as “The Dream VITAS Team.” They consistently exceed expectations. Their coordination, communication, compassion, and expertise make end-of-life care a dignified and supportive experience for residents and families. If you want a hospice company that excels clinically and emotionally, chooses humanity over convenience, and treats patients like family—not cases—VITAS is it. The highest quality hospice experience you can ask for.

1. Social worker seemed to care about his patient base 2. Both chaplains were awesome. Respectful and informative. Thankful for them. 3. Veronica/Victoria (I can’t exactly remember) was also very informative and respectful to me, not always to my other family members but I’d imagine her job being stressful. 4. LACK OF COMMUNICATION……. Between the nursing home and hospice the communication was HORRIBLE…. They were never on the same page and for that my father suffered through end stage liver failure.. it was always hard to reach anyone and when they were needed asap it always took hours.. 5. Every single day my father was getting assessed by different nurses all with different view points on my father’s condition, this too resulted in discomfort at his last days. 6. Oxygen machines were delivered but the nurses had no clue at the nursing home about it…. No order was ever put in on hospices end to increase his oxygen from 5 to 10(THESE THINGS WERE CONSTANTLY HAPPENING….) I had to call for someone to understand my frustrations, she was rude at first when answering the phone (I can’t remember her name) but she ended up truly caring about my fathers well being and contacting the nursing home with me on the phone insisting they check on him and provide what he needed, if it weren’t for her his oxygen would never have gotten changed. So thank you.. As someone who comes from a medical background and watching the last 3.5 weeks of my father’s life. I will never forget it. Hospice should thrive on comfort and CARE for both patient and family… not just a 1 min look at him, and walk out… I’ve gone through 3 rounds of hospice care in my family… this being 3… and not the most pleasant experience. My advice for the company you are spending peoples last days with them, show them happiness, kindness, respect. Show them it’s ok and everything is going to be ok, but also make sure they are comfortable and your patients children, or CNAs dont have to struggle to get ahold of you on the phone. Someone should ACTUALLY be available 24/7…

Our family's experience with Vitas has been nothing short of devastating. In what is clearly a life-or-death situation, their team has been unprofessional, unskilled, and dishonest. We were repeatedly misled about service offerings, only to be told something was possible (like at-home IV and PCA pump care) when I chose to transfer to another hospice to pursue that offering. Even then, their staff demonstrated zero competence with IV care: they didn't understand how it worked, how to set it up, or how to safely manage it. My mother suffered directly because of their lack of skill and their inability to provide the level of care they promised. The final straw came during an emergency call while my mother was vomiting blood. The on-call nurse, Emeka, dismissed the seriousness of the situation, told me he didn't want to come, and insisted she'd be "fine" with just family care. When I declined his halfhearted offer after that shocking response, he later fabricated a lie that I had hung up on him, then used that lie as his excuse to refuse a scheduled visit the very next day. This kind of unprofessional, petty behavior is unconscionable in hospice care. Hospice is supposed to relieve suffering, not add to it. Instead of support, Vitas has added chaos, drama, and negligence at one of the hardest times in our lives. Families in crisis deserve competent, compassionate care. We received neither. I cannot in good conscience recommend Vitas to anyone seeking hospice care for their loved ones.

My mother suffered a stroke at home and was hospitalized. Unfortunately, I could no longer care for her at home, which led to her placement in a nursing facility. During her hospital stay, the doctor recommended palliative care and referred us to VITAS. Having had a positive experience with hospice care in Massachusetts for my father, I felt confident my mother would receive the same compassionate support. Sadly, that was not the case. The most glaring issue was the lack of communication. As my mother’s power of attorney and the person responsible for all her medical decisions, I should have been consulted on every aspect of her care. Instead, I received only occasional text messages from her nurse—either notifying me of a visit or giving a time range for one. There were no phone calls, no updates, and no proactive outreach. One particularly distressing incident involved my mother being prescribed Oxycodone without my knowledge. I arrived to find her in a semi-conscious state, drooling and unable to speak—just the day before, she had been alert and pain-free. When I contacted VITAS, they said the nurse would reach out. That evening, the nurse and the facility’s charge nurse explained that my mother had shown signs of pain through facial expressions and restlessness. I understood their reasoning, but emphasized that I must be informed of such decisions in advance. I also requested that the nurse call me directly instead of texting. I visited my mother almost daily and was aware of her condition, but direct communication is essential in hospice care. Unlike my experience with my father’s hospice team, which was consistently engaged and supportive, VITAS staff rarely reached out. The chaplain contacted me once early on and was kind, but after that, I only received sporadic calls asking about supplies or volunteer services. I voiced my concerns during one of these calls, and while the person said they would notify the medical team, I never heard back. I had to initiate contact with the social worker myself. The final and most painful experience occurred just days before my mother passed. She complained of pain in her lower jaw, and I asked the facility nurse to administer pain medication. I then called VITAS to request a nurse visit. They said someone would come within 24 hours. No one came. The next day, her face was swollen. The facility nurse confirmed they had also called VITAS that morning, but still no one had arrived. I called again and insisted on speaking to a nurse. Only then did someone respond and send a nurse immediately. The nurse diagnosed an infection and said she would contact the doctor for antibiotics. The medication wasn’t administered until the following day. My mother passed a few days later. To date, the only person from VITAS who has followed up is the chaplain. I’m writing this review not out of anger, but to raise awareness. Hospice care should be compassionate, responsive, and communicative. My mother deserved better. Families deserve better. I hope VITAS takes this feedback seriously and improves their care model so that no other family has to experience what we did.