Nick Westfall headshot

The pandemic is disrupting traditional hospice admission patterns — from senior housing, nursing homes and assisted living facilities — but VITAS Healthcare is weathering some aspects of the storm just fine.

VITAS recorded a significant increase of 9.2% in home-based admissions and a 7.4% bump in hospital-directed admissions, President and CEO Nick Westfall noted during a fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday

Nursing home and assisted living admissions, however, registered double-digit drops of 19.3% and 14.7%, respectively. Overall, VITAS’ total fourth-quarter admissions of 17,960 represents a 2.8% increase over fourth-quarter 2019.

Meanwhile, VITAS’ fourth-quarter revenue of $332 million represents a decline of 2.3% over fourth-quarter 2019 numbers.

VITAS Healthcare is a subsidiary of Chemed Corp., which also operates Roto-Rooter, a plumbing and drain cleaning services provider.