FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Kal Mistry, Chief Administrative Officer/Senior Vice President
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, 305.350.5990
Megan Carella, APR, Public Relations Editor
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, 352.560.3415
Fairfield, Connecticut, February 23, 2010— Clare Cherney, MD, has been promoted to medical director for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Fairfield, responsible for overseeing the medical care and treatment of VITAS patients in their homes and in nursing homes, assisted living communities and personal care homes in Fairfield and New Haven counties.
As a VITAS medical director, Cherney consults with patients’ attending physicians, supervises VITAS team physicians, guides staff and volunteers, and serves as a resource to practicing physicians and other healthcare professionals on the benefits of hospice and palliative care for patients and their families.
The Woodbridge resident joined VITAS in 2007 as a team physician. Prior to joining VITAS, she served as an attending physician for a hospice in Branford, Connecticut, and, before that, as a healthcare performance improvement consultant. Earlier in her career, Cherney she was an epidemiologist and attending physician in infection control at the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, Connecticut, where she provided medical care and supervised the treatment of more than 400 HIV/AIDS patients.
Board certified in internal medicine and in infectious disease medicine, Cherney received a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York and a medical degree from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey. She completed an internship and residency at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has been a member of the board of directors for the Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis in New Haven, Connecticut.
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, a pioneer and leader in the hospice movement since 1978, is one of the nation’s largest providers of end-of-life care. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS (pronounced VEE-tahs) operates 44 hospice programs in 16 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin). VITAS employs 9,625 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients’ homes, but also in the company’s 30 inpatient hospice units as well as in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities/residential care facilities for the elderly. At the conclusion of the Fourth quarter of 2009, VITAS reported an average daily census of 12,142. Visit www.vitas.com.