Respiratory Services
What is a Respiratory Care Practitioner?
Respiratory care practitioners work to evaluate, treat, and care for patients with breathing disorders. Those people include patients with chronic lung problems such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema but they also include heart attack and accident victims, premature infants, and people with cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, or AIDS.
Patients with respiratory-related sleep disorders receive additional evaluation through the HSHS St. Vincent Hospital Sleep Disorder Center. A pulmonary rehabilitation program aids patients in improving quality of life and functional abilities.
Respiratory care practitioners perform procedures that are both diagnostic and therapeutic.