Amedisys Expanding Commitment to End-of-Life Care for Veterans

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ:AMED), a leading independent home health, hospice and personal care company, is taking the opportunity on this Veteran’s Day to expand its commitment to honor America’s dying military veterans with the highest quality end-of-life care.

The company, as the nation’s third largest hospice provider, is pledging that all of its 137  hospice care centers nationwide by next year will partner with the “We Honor Veterans” program, a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. The initiative brings private-sector hospice providers together with the federal agency and national organization to promote veteran-centric education and improve high quality of care for veterans.

The Company currently has 90 percent of its hospice care centers engaged in the We Honor Veterans program.

Last year, Amedisys gave end-of-life care to 5,540 veterans. Every day, an average of 1,800 American veterans die, about 680,000 per year. One in every four dying Americans is a veteran. Of 19.3 million U.S. veterans in 2016, 9.2 million were 65 years of age and older.

“Veterans confronting the end of life often have unique needs,” said Amedisys President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Kusserow. “That means they require hospice care that is equally unique. Our 5,500-strong hospice staff across the country – nurses, social workers, therapists, counselors, chaplains and others – are increasingly making sure that our care is as veteran-centric as possible to meet those needs.”

Amedisys is in the forefront of the veteran-centric movement. It operates one of only nine hospice centers in the nation, Beacon Hospice, an Amedisys company, in Hyannis, Massachusetts, that received a Level 5 certification from "We Honor Veterans," representing best practices and the highest designation attainable. Through the program, Amedisys also carries out the following:

• Enables veterans to die wherever they call home – as much a preference among veterans as among the general population.
   
• Enlists more than 200 volunteers nationwide who are themselves veterans to help care for fellow veterans in hospice.
  
  
• Stages pinning ceremonies, sometimes at bedside, to honor veterans at end of life, with family, friends and staff attending, complete with national anthem and salute to our flag.
  
  
• Holds veteran-to-veteran "cafes" so that veterans in the community can gather in a spirit of camaraderie for heart-to-heart conversations about life – and possibly about dying.
  
  
• Conducts mandatory courses, called “Caring For Our Veterans,” to train its clinicians to follow protocols to deliver veteran-centric care to veterans at end of life.

“Our veterans served with dignity and honor and deserve to die with dignity and honor,” said Anthony Mollica, Hospice President at Amedisys. “All hospice providers have a significant opportunity to provide more advanced training to build competence when delivering care for this unique population.”

About Amedisys: 
Amedisys, Inc. is a leading healthcare at home Company delivering personalized home health, hospice and personal care. Amedisys is focused on delivering the care that is best for our patients, whether that is home-based personal care; recovery and rehabilitation after an operation or injury; care focused on empowering them to manage a chronic disease; or hospice care at the end of life. More than 3,000 hospitals and 65,000 physicians nationwide have chosen Amedisys as a partner in post-acute care. Founded in 1982, headquartered in Baton Rouge, LA with an executive office in Nashville, TN, Amedisys is a publicly held company. With more than 21,000 employees in 470 care centers in 38 states and the District of Columbia, Amedisys is dedicated to delivering the highest quality of care to the doorsteps of more than 376,000 patients and clients in need every year. For more information about the Company, please visit: www.amedisys.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:
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