VITAS Healthcare - Lutz

I wish I could say this was a positive experience during such a difficult time, but unfortunately, it was anything but that. The level of care we received was extremely disappointing. Most of the staff made us feel like we were a burden rather than a family going through one of the hardest moments of our lives. Communication was poor, and when I reached out for additional help and resources, it felt like my concerns were brushed off. In particular, the social worker, Danielle, was unhelpful and unprepared. The information she provided was inaccurate, which only added more stress and confusion to an already overwhelming situation. When you're relying on professionals for guidance, getting incorrect information is unacceptable. That being said, I do want to recognize Fredo. He was the one bright spot in this experience. He took the time to truly connect with my uncle before he passed, and he made our family feel heard, supported, and cared for. His compassion and effort did not go unnoticed, and we are incredibly grateful for him. It's unfortunate that one person stood out so positively while the rest of the experience fell so far below expectations. I sincerely hope this facility makes improvements so other families don't have to go through what we did.

I made my concerns clear to the management team however nothing came of it. It started out well the first two weeks of at home care for my grandmother. That quickly changed as we constantly had different nurses assigned therefore no consistency for the patient nor the family. We would be told conflicting information by each nurse all the way up to her passing. It was an occasional occurrence but literally we saw a different nurse 2-3 times a week and was advised “I don’t know why they would tell you that because that isn’t right”…We were never provided guidance on how to do things such as appropriate method to move patient from bed to bedside commode, etc. We were left to searching YouTube to get guidance that we anticipated the agency to assist with. When we called after hours to ask questions it would take often times 3+ hours to get a call back. When you have a family member in pain and air gasping that is tooo long for a simple call back. On the day she passed VITAS didn’t even send out a nurse to pronounce the death, they sent a chaplain who was completely unaware of anything. In the state of FL it is against statute for a chaplain to pronounce death, must be a doctor or RN. Then took them over two weeks to sign death certificate for the funeral home which by law must be done in 72 hours. It was a circus to say the least. If I could do it over I would certainly have researched and went with Gulfside.

Just wanted to give a shout out to Kenya!!!! By far the best.... Always has time for the patient.... Never in a hurry.