Coleman to Coordinate National VITAS Partnership with Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Direct Hospice Education Initiative for One Thousand Churches.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2003

Philip Coleman has been appointed to serve as the Director of Hospice Education for the Rainbow/PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) Coalition--a multiracial, international organization founded by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., which works to improve social, racial and economic justice. The appointment was made jointly by VITAS Innovative Hospice Care(R) Chairman & CEO, Hugh Westbrook, and the Rev. Jackson.

As a VITAS employee working from the PUSH offices in Chicago, Coleman will launch a national partnership between VITAS and Rainbow/PUSH to educate religious leaders about the hospice ministry model through One Thousand Churches Connected. Rainbow/PUSH established One Thousand Churches Connected to link religious organizations in the top 50 minority markets, with a mission to inspire leaders to educate their members on matters related to healthcare, equal opportunity and economic empowerment.

"Through our One Thousand Churches Connected program, we have developed a Health Services Organization to provide our member churches with resources to improve overall health outcomes in our community," Jackson said.

"More than 21 million African Americans gather every Sunday. It is imperative that our religious leaders embrace the moral obligation to minister to the total person. That is why I am excited about partnering with VITAS to ensure that our community receives quality end-of-life care," he continued. "I believe the addition of Philip Coleman to our team will help us reach the goals of sharing health stewardship to our member churches," Jackson concluded.

"With this new partnership, VITAS will have the opportunity to increase access to hospice care by minority patients & families," said Westbrook. "We also will develop additional spiritually-based hospice programs--all with the support and broad reach of Rainbow/PUSH."

"Philip has had tremendous success expanding VITAS' outreach to traditionally underserved populations in Chicagoland. Now, working with Rainbow/PUSH and continuing his work with the Full Gospel Baptist Convention, Philip will be an essential part of VITAS' efforts to expand awareness of and access to hospice services in African-American communities throughout the nation," said Westbrook.

Coleman, who traveled to Africa with the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2002, is a founding board member of The Nehemiah Foundation, a member of the Initiative to Improve Palliative Care in the African-American Community and a member of The Chicago End of Life Care Coalition. He also was an Executive Board Member of The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition - South Suburban Chapter, from 1999 to 2002 and completed service for the 7th Congressional District of the Illinois Health Task Force with Congressman Danny K. Davis.

Coleman received his bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Chicago, 1996. In addition, he recently was accepted to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he will earn a master's degree in public health, with a focus on community health sciences and end-of-life care.

VITAS Innovative Hospice Care(R), a pioneer and leader in the hospice movement since 1978, is the nation's largest provider of end-of-life care. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS (pronounced VEE-tahs) operates 24 hospice programs in eight states (Illinois, California, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin). VITAS employs 5,300 professionals who care for more than 7,100 terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients' homes, but also in the company's 16 hospice inpatient units as well as in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities/residential care facilities for the elderly.