Department Spotlight: Respiratory Therapists
Respiratory therapists — you probably see them every day at Elkhart General Hospital and Memorial Hospital, but some may not know how important these associates are to the world-class health care we provide. In addition to the hospital setting, respiratory therapists work in pulmonary rehab, home care, diagnostics, pulmonary function labs, sleep centers and transport teams. In each area, they are involved directly with patients who need help with a vital function that most people take for granted every day: breathing. And because their value to overall patient care is immeasurable, they are still busy. How busy?
They deliver medications, provide education and suggest ways for patients to live better. They bring attention to how to manage diseases such as asthma and COPD. They draw blood to evaluate a person’s breathing. They insert breathing tubes when a patient can’t breathe and they help to wean and take the breathing tubes out (when time to do so). And with that, they’re just getting started!
Some of their many other tasks include:
• Work with patients who have a ventilator and/or a tracheostomy, making sure that they are able to breathe comfortably
• Manage life support systems, establishing and maintaining a patient’s airway, and even helping patients breathe when they can’t
• Participate in every code blue, every rapid response call and every trauma case
• Help patients to learn how to live with pulmonary disease, building strength, endurance and maximizing their quality of life
• Teach patients or caregivers how to give breathing treatments, managing a home ventilator, the proper use and care of oxygen and CPAP units for sleep apnea
• Treat severe wounds, pre and post-radiation and a person who may have been exposed to carbon monoxide through the use of the hyperbaric oxygen chamber
• Help diagnose sleep issues and find the best way to treat the patient
Faith Kobrehel, Registered Respiratory Therapist and Educator, Pulmonary Services at Memorial, says the dozens of respiratory therapists across the health system are involved in every segment of the patient population.
“It starts at the first breath with the premature neonate and to the last breath of a geriatric patient and everyone in-between. Most people don’t even know who we are, but they are usually really glad when we can help them out!”
