VITAS, the nation's leading hospice provider, is now serving patients with life-limiting diagnoses and their families in the greater Columbus area, including those in Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties. VITAS also provides quality, compassionate end-of-life care in Ohio to patients and families in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton.
“VITAS is dedicated to providing responsive hospice care that is available around the clock. And, as a hospice industry leader, VITAS is committed to continually improving clinical care through advances in pain management, the interdisciplinary approach to providing hospice care and caregiver education.”
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Columbus cares for patients by bringing to the bedside an interdisciplinary team — physician, nurses, hospice aides, chaplain, social worker and volunteers — with a broad range of expertise in meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients at the end of life and their families.
"In 1978, VITAS helped define hospice when it opened its first program, in Miami, Florida. With the opening of the Columbus program, VITAS now operates 44 hospice programs in 16 states," says Patty Husted, VITAS vice president of hospice operations. "VITAS is dedicated to providing responsive hospice care that is available around the clock. And, as a hospice industry leader, VITAS is committed to continually improving clinical care through advances in pain management, the interdisciplinary approach to providing hospice care and caregiver education.
"We have staff in place and we are working with local physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities to familiarize them with our program," says Janet Snapp, RN, MSN, OCN, CHPN, FPCN, VITAS general manager. "VITAS is excited about the opportunity to bring our brand of Innovative Hospice Care to patients and their families in central Ohio."
Because hospice is not a place, as many believe, VITAS caregivers provide comfort, pain control and symptom management to patients in their own homes, whether that home is a private residence, nursing home or assisted living community, explains Snapp. "Patients and families in central Ohio can access VITAS clinical staff day or night through a 24-hour call center," she says.
Research published by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization found that most Americans want to receive end-of-life care at home and think hospice professionals are the most knowledgeable in helping them do so.
As a pioneer and leader in the American hospice movement, VITAS has developed resources that have enhanced care for the terminally ill everywhere. VITAS clinicians have authored and edited one of the definitive texts on hospice, "20 Common Problems in End-of-Life Care." VITAS clinicians also have developed a proprietary pain formulary, wound care guide, analgesic dosage conversion ruler and an extensive library of educational materials for families and healthcare professionals.
In the area of bereavement care, VITAS has published two pamphlets, "Children & Grief" and "Teens & Grief," to assist caregivers in understanding their children's grieving process and to help children handle their grief appropriately. VITAS also self-published a short book entitled, "The Surviving Spouse," in which a former chief patient care officer, a physician, examined the effects of grief on the health of a surviving spouse and offered healthy suggestions for handling grief. VITAS and its charitable foundation also helped publish "Parting: A Handbook for Spiritual Care Near the End of Life," which is an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to assist patients' caregivers and loved ones in meeting the spiritual needs of patients at the end of life.
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