Long-Time VITAS Manager Dian Backoff Named Vice President of Operations.

MIAMI -- Dian Backoff has been named a Vice President/Operations for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care(R).

A 19-year VITAS employee, Backoff has served since June 2002 as Senior General Manager of VITAS' Broward County hospice program, one of the two largest in the company. In her new, corporate role, Backoff will oversee all VITAS programs in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

"Dian has earned a well-deserved reputation within VITAS as a strong patient advocate and a great team leader," commented Peggy Pettit, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "Under Dian's leadership our Broward County program has grown substantially to continue to meet the community's need for quality, compassionate hospice care."

In her career at VITAS, Backoff has served in the field as a bedside nurse on an inpatient hospice unit, an admissions coordinator, admissions nurse, admissions counselor, VITAS representative and customer service manager. She also has held a number of corporate positions, including corporate admissions manager, director of marketing & admissions and general manager of admissions call centers.

Backoff, a resident of Wellington, has earned numerous awards during her VITAS career. She won VITAS' national Employee Recognition Award for Excellence in Management when she was a customer service manager; she has been named to the VITAS Leadership Council as a general manager. Under her leadership as Broward general manager a half-dozen of her employees have won national Employee Recognition Awards. During her term as general manager, Backoff also opened inpatient hospice units for VITAS at Fort Lauderdale Nursing and Rehabilitation and Broward Nursing and Rehabilitation.

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 39 hospice programs in 15 states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin). VITAS employs 8,334 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients' homes, but also in the company's 23 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 fourth quarter of 2005, VITAS reported an average daily census of 10,412.