VITAS Healthcare Appoints Joel Wherley as Chief Operating Officer

MIAMI--()--VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care, announced the appointment of veteran healthcare leader Joel Wherley as Chief Operating Officer. Reporting to VITAS Chief Executive Officer Nick Westfall, Joel oversees operations of the company’s 44 hospice programs in 14 states, which care for more than 16,300 hospice patients and their families on a daily basis.

Joel has over 30 years of experience in healthcare sales and operations management, eight of them in hospice. He joined VITAS in 2016 as senior vice president of hospice operations, where he led daily operations for VITAS programs in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Texas.

“Joel’s leadership and performance will continue to build on our history of operational excellence in providing high quality, end-of-life care to patients and families,” says Nick Westfall. “I have great confidence in his proven ability to inspire and enable our programs to meet the demands of a changing healthcare landscape while maintaining our focus on company-wide initiatives that support continued growth and success in each of the markets we serve.”

“I am excited and honored to serve as VITAS’ COO,” says Joel Wherley. “I look forward to partnering with our talented senior leadership team to deliver on our mission and values during this exciting time in healthcare.”

Joel earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and organizational design from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

About VITAS Healthcare

VITAS® Healthcare, a pioneer and leader in the hospice movement since 1978, is the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS operates 44 hospice programs in 14 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia. As of the first quarter of 2017, VITAS employs 11,606 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients’ homes, but also in the company’s 32 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 first quarter of 2017, VITAS reported an average daily census of 16,319. Visit www.vitas.com.

Contacts

VITAS Healthcare
Claudia Quintana, 305-350-4359
Director of Media & Public Relations
Claudia.Quintana@vitas.com,

Contacts

VITAS Healthcare
Claudia Quintana, 305-350-4359
Director of Media & Public Relations
Claudia.Quintana@vitas.com,