Diagnostics
Respiratory Therapy
Breathing treatments, oxygen, lung function testing, and stress tests. Also the ten minutes that fix your inhaler technique.
Our respiratory therapists work in the emergency department, on the inpatient floor, and with outpatients sent over from the clinic.
The list: breathing treatments and airway support, assessment for home oxygen and getting it set up in the house, pulmonary function testing to sort out asthma from COPD from something else entirely, overnight screening for sleep apnea, and cardiac stress testing.
Here is the part worth your attention. A large share of people carrying an inhaler are not getting the medicine into their lungs, because the timing and the breath are wrong and nobody ever watched them do it. They conclude the medication does not work, stop taking it, and end up in our emergency department.
Ten minutes with a respiratory therapist watching you use your own inhaler fixes this more often than a new prescription does. If you use one, ask. There is no charge for being shown.