(l-r) Peggy Pettit, VITAS executive vice president and COO; Dr. Paul Pugliese, VITAS associate medical director; Dr. Robert Schwartz, Miller School of Medicine professor and chair of family medicine; Anthony Degina, CEO, UM Hospital; Dr. Joel Policzer, VITAS national medical director; Peter Benjamin, The Huntington Consulting Group; and Dr. Kenneth Goodman, director of the UM Bioethics Program.

In a unique partnership, VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have established an inpatient hospice unit that provides quality, compassionate end-of-life care to its patients and serves as a world-class training ground for the next generation of hospice and palliative care specialists.

The 10-bed, state-of the-art VITAS Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at the University of Miami Hospital offers South Florida patients and their families a more complete range of options in hospice care. It also serves an educational purpose, thanks to a five-year, $500,000 grant made by VITAS to the Miller School of Medicine to establish a fellowship program in hospice and palliative care.
 
Located on the seventh floor of University of Miami Hospital’s south tower, the unit offers respite, palliative and supportive care in a comfortable, tranquil and homelike environment that embraces patients and their families and visitors.