Joseph Shega, MD, is executive vice president and chief medical officer for VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care. He is board-certified in geriatric and hospice and palliative medicine, and has been caring for, studying, and teaching about geriatric patients and end-of-life care since 1999. He joined VITAS in 2013 as regional medical director, was named senior vice president and national medical director in 2016, and was promoted to chief medical officer in 2018 and to executive vice president in 2021. Dr. Shega completed medical school at Northwestern University, with a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a geriatrics fellowship at the University of Chicago.
There’s a lingering misperception among many patients, loved ones, and even healthcare professionals that hospice care is useful only in a patient’s last days or weeks of life.