Webcast Central

This program will describe various approaches to smoking cessation in the elderly and explain educational and pharmacological interventions that are helpful. Reasons why some older adults are successful former smokers, and the effect that public health initiatives have on smoking cessation will also be presented.

This presentation will address common issues in coding and billing for respiratory care services. Discrepancies between coding and reimbursement, Medicare Part A and B reimbursement, and coding for case studies will be discussed. Resources to assist in finding answers to coding questions will be identified.

The clinical value of properly prescribed long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) has been well established for COPD patients afflicted with severe chronic arterial hypoxemia. Proven benefits include improved survival, increased exercise tolerance and enhanced quality of life. Low flow supplemental oxygen therapy is no different than any other controller medication prescribed for respiratory-related symptoms such as bronchoconstriction or airway inflammation. Like other respiratory medications, LTOT must be properly prescribed and dosed for optimum clinical and economic benefits.

This presentation will strive to improve respiratory therapists’ ability to help their patients with chronic lung disease improve the quality of life. Participants will be provided with a patient’s perspective on their interaction with the healthcare system and the barriers they need to overcome to improve compliance with their prescribed plan of care.

This presentation provides a brief introduction to general legal principles followed by an overview of medical malpractice in the U.S. Actual cases involving health care professionals and respiratory therapists will be reviewed and analyzed in order to identify areas of significant malpractice risk in respiratory care and methods of minimizing that risk.

The presenter will describe initiatives that have successfully reduced missed treatments and ventilator days at his institution, review the role of misallocation as a major driver and discuss the development of a quality review process that minimizes missed treatments and reduces ventilator days.

This presentation will cover essential components required for effective communication within the patient care team. The who, what, why and how perspective of patient safety will be explored.

This presentation will focus on the evidence-based indications and contraindications for NIV. Definitive indications as well as lower level evidence that potentially support the use of NIV will be discussed. The end focus will to determine the current best practice in the application of NIV.

Overcoming barriers that exist as a function of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status is a critical aspect of safe, quality patient care and results in an improved quality of life for our patients. This web cast will explore barriers which impede or erode treatment adherence and suggest interventions designed to improve compliance to medically prescribed lifestyle and treatment regimens in diverse populations with cardiopulmonary disease.

This presentation provides an overview of the theory of BiLevel modes of ventilation with a brief discussion of application. Airway Pressure Release Ventilation and BiLevel Positive Airway Pressure will be compared and contrasted. Published clinical evidence, describe theoretical concepts for areas where evidence is lacking will be reviewed, and a BiLevel simulator that illustrates the interaction of set ventilator parameters and outcome patient variables will be demonstrated. This is an advanced lecture that assumes familiarity with basic mechanical ventilation and pressure control modes in general.

This presentation will review those factors that affect asthma control with attention to what respiratory therapists can do to help patients; There will also be a review of the EPR 3 guidelines especially as it relates to control.

This presentation will focus on the importance of identifying inpatients with OSA, discuss appropriate testing and required accommodations. Indications for further testing and treatment goals and implications for discharge planning will also be explored.

Respiratory therapists are presented with unique challenges when testing and treating pediatric patients. Pediatric testing, whether it's in a designated area or at the bedside, requires a unique approach that includes special techniques and practice styles necessary to capture the patient's attention, gain the cooperation necessary to produce valid results and produce appropriate treatment and outcomes.

This presentation will describe situations in which blood gases are frequently over and underutilized. Clinical indications for blood gas sampling will be discussed and optimal use of protocols/algorithms that promote best practice in obtaining blood gas samples will be described.