Central Valley Specialty Hospital Analyzes the Latest Trends in Respiratory Therapy

The uses and applications of respiratory therapy are many, intertwining with the broader healthcare system across a range of disciplines

Respiratory therapy focuses on the analysis and treatment of the cardiopulmonary system, namely the heart and lungs.

According to Modesto, California-based Central Valley Specialty Hospital, some of the most common roles that respiratory therapists (RTs) fill includes the administering of oxygen, asthma medication, and other drugs, as well as performing tests to measure lung function.

Given that respiratory therapy naturally overlaps with numerous other conditions and plays a prominent role in a patient’s overall health, respiratory therapists are on the cutting edge of the shifting healthcare system, which is undergoing rapid change as new funding models and an aging population change the way healthcare practitioners approach their roles.

In particular, the healthcare system in North America is transitioning from a reactive one that treated patients’ conditions after the fact, to a proactive one that seeks to prevent those conditions from occurring in the first place. Respiratory therapists are likewise becoming more proactive in their own development, taking on new roles and skills that allow them to better serve both hospitals and patients, such as being able to handle EKGs.

Central Valley Specialty Hospital, which provides 96 beds for patients primarily in need of long-term care, says respiratory therapists are perfectly suited to expanding their role into something akin to an intermediary between patients and doctors, being capable of bridging the inpatient/outpatient divide and acting as case managers. There is already some evidence that when RTs act as case managers for patients with relevant conditions like asthma and COPD, those patients’ hospital stays are shorter and more successful.

While about 75% of RTs still work within acute care hospitals, they’re increasingly being deployed at outpatient clinics where they can issue timely respiratory care and deliver vital education sessions. Specialty clinics like cardiac diagnostic and pulmonary function clinics offer great uses for their skills, while they’re also in high demand at sleep disorder clinics.

Leadership Skills Could Greatly Benefit Future Respiratory Therapists

Given the multidisciplinary nature of our future healthcare system, respiratory therapists are being encouraged to build their leadership skills and take on more active roles in the management of patients’ health, including autonomous roles that may see them being responsible for assessing patients, advising them on courses of therapy, interpreting pulmonary or sleep studies, and being able to write prescriptions.

Central Valley Specialty Hospital believes that the readmission rate for patients with COPD would be greatly reduced through these expanded roles for respiratory therapists, while asthma sufferers would have easier access to their medications.

However, more in-depth schooling options for RTs may be necessary to allow them to reach their full potential and most effectively undertake such roles. Currently, there is no minimum standard of a bachelor’s degree for RTs as there is for many other health care professionals, even as the respiratory field has become more complex and high-tech over the past few decades. Expanded education would allow RTs to take on these vital roles with patients and put their valuable clinical expertise to best use.