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Tuesday, May 13
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 Eric Stewart |
Atlanta Knows Hospice;
Eric Stewart
Wants Atlanta to Know VITAS
Originally published in Atlanta Hospital News, June 2006
By James Vannelle
Not many sales reps find thank-you notes on their windshields. Eric Stewart has.
Eric is director of market development for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Atlanta, but he was a rep when he received the note from an appreciative family.
Eric’s mother is an RN and director of a hospice in Idaho; his father is an ER physician. Eric believed in hospice, but he never expected it to be so rewarding—or frustrating. In the year that Eric has been with VITAS, he has been frustrated by how many end-of-life options there are inside I-285, and how few beyond the beltway. He’s frustrated that patients get to hospice too late to benefit from the quality of life VITAS has to offer. He’s frustrated to see physicians struggle with their most challenging end-stage patients.
VITAS, promises Eric, is changing all that.
“Hospice is exploding in Atlanta—everything is exploding in Atlanta,” he says. “And Atlanta knows hospice; doctors, nurses, case managers, all are very pro-hospice. But hospice in Atlanta is driven by the inpatient unit. Patients seem to spend their last days in an ambulance, in transition from one place of care to another!
“VITAS patients are in their homes,” he explains. “When they need more services, we offer Continuous Care—it’s like moving an inpatient unit to the home. We manage the crisis and get the patient back to a routine level of care—four to five visits per week, more than any hospice in the area. And we can track that; we can back it up.”
When Eric goes into a hospital to call on a referring physician, he prints a Patient Summary Report on the spot. It tells the physician the level of care the patient is receiving; the patient’s pain score at admission and at present; the number of times the chaplain has visited, or the social worker, or home health aide. “They’ve never seen reports like ours before,” Eric says.
“Then we talk about their end-stage patients, who are calling repeatedly, are noncompliant and getting worse. I explain that VITAS works as a continuum of the physician’s practice, an added service. Doctors don’t give up their patients; they follow them into hospice. Or they continue to treat and bill for illnesses that aren’t terminal. If a COPD patient is admitted to VITAS, for example, the doctor may still need to treat the diabetes.”
“I educate nurses, social workers and doctors on a daily basis. Yes, they know hospice care. I say, ‘Let’s not settle for standard hospice care. Why not offer the highest level of end-of-life care, not just in the metro area but in the surrounding areas?’”
Eric Stewart can probably expect more thank-you notes on his windshield
100 South Biscayne Blvd, Suite 1500 Miami, FL
33131 (305) 374-4143 |
