In September 1989, Patty Husted joined VITAS® Healthcare as a nurse in its inpatient hospice unit in Sunrise, Florida. The hospice and palliative care provider was barely a decade old then and, like Patty, still charting a course through a relatively new segment of the healthcare industry. Only five years prior had VITAS – known then as Hospice Care, Inc. – expanded out of Florida and into Texas and Illinois.
In just under 30 years, Patty and VITAS would grow together, from a hospice nurse with a provider operating in six cities to the executive vice president of operations at the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
VITAS’ expansion didn’t merely coincide with Patty’s advancement within the organization. In her various roles – including national patient care administrator, director of patient services and vice president of patient clinical services, among over a dozen others – she has been a leader in identifying and addressing business development opportunities, performing company-wide quality assurance and regulatory compliance, and creating new company policies and procedures that affect patient care.
Today, Patty oversees the operation of all VITAS programs in Florida and Georgia. Under her governance as executive VPO, VITAS has experienced especially impressive growth in South Florida, including the opening of a new inpatient hospice unit at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Palm Beach, an expansion of services throughout the Treasure Coast via a new office in Stuart, and the approval of a new freestanding inpatient unit in southwest Miami-Dade County scheduled to open in 2020.
“One thing you can always count on at VITAS is change, and I mean that in the most positive way,” Patty says. “We’re always evolving. It’s a good idea to get on board with it, because it can take you to so many places.”
