PSRC Lobbies for Respiratory Health
October 23, 2007
The Pennsylvania Society for Respiratory Care (PSRC) hosted its second annual Legislative Day in the state capitol of Harrisburg on October 15, going to bat for lung health issues and advocating for a change in the state’s respiratory care legal credentialing law.
“We focused on three areas,” says PSRC Governmental Affairs Chair Garry W. Kauffman, RRT, FAARC, MPA, FACHE, “asthma legislation, clean indoor air, and amending our credentialing act to change our title from ‘certified’ to ‘licensed.’”
The event attracted 81 RTs and RT students from across the state, who brought along 24 oxygen-dependent patients to help drive home the key messages. “As I learned as the PSRC representative to the AARC PACT, the presence and passion of patients is synergistic to the efforts of the RTs,” says Kauffman. “The legislators first heard the science from the RT and then got a second dose from the oxygen-dependent patient.”
The group advocated for two asthma bills currently pending in the state legislature — one of which was recently introduced only after therapists stepped up to garner support for the measure.
“Representative Michael Sturla had attempted unsuccessfully throughout the two prior legislative sessions to get his asthma tracking legislation introduced,” explains Kauffman. The initiative failed even though asthma is the number one cause of school absence in the state and among the top reasons why adults miss work.
Working with the PSRC lobbying firm, The Winter Group, Kauffman met with Rep. Sturla and pledged the support of RTs. “Within the next two weeks, we had literally hundreds of e-mails, letters, faxes, and phone calls to each of 256 legislators in the state capitol. Two weeks later, and the asthma tracking legislation was introduced.”
Kauffman says the legislation is a great example of what can happen when RTs rise to the challenge. “The only difference in the process this time was that RTs were engaged,” he says.
The other asthma bill supported during the Legislative Day seeks to amend current law to allow children to carry their asthma inhalers and epi-pens with them during school hours — a move the PSRC believes is essential to preventing potentially deadly attacks. “Some school districts have decided that they can merely allow the meds to be kept by the school nurse, despite that the student may not be able to access them quickly enough to stave off an asthma attack,” says Kauffman.
The clean air legislation supported by the group would essentially ban smoking in public places, and Kauffman bolstered the bill by presenting legislators and their staffs with three articles from the American Journal of Public Health — one on the impact smoke-free laws have on bar profits, another on the impact these laws have on non-smoking bar and restaurant workers, and the third on a drop in cardiac arrest hospitalizations seen in New York following a smoking ban there.
“These addressed the concerns of some legislators that profitability would be hurt for those businesses that went smoke-free, and it reminded the legislators that the employees of businesses allowing smoking were at greater risk for lung disease,” says the government affairs chair.
The articles made an especially big impact on one legislator, who had been adamantly opposed to the bill. “When we presented him with the scientific articles validating our view, his reply was unexpected,” says Kauffman. The gentleman simply replied, “Oh, I didn’t know this.”
“I can’t remember hearing so few words from an elected official,” says Kauffman.
Having the oxygen patients on board helped drive home the message as well. One patient, for example, reported looking his legislator in the eye and telling him point blank that the patient wouldn’t go to any more restaurants in the legislator’s district if they were not smoke-free.
The final issue on the agenda dealt with the state’s respiratory care legal credentialing law, which Kauffman says was passed in the early 1990s, when the state had a moratorium on granting any new licenses. “We were allowed to use the title ‘certified’ or nothing. We chose to accept this and then come back at a later time to have this changed.” The PSRC feels now is that time, and is seeking the title change using the slogan, “If a beautician [can be licensed], why not an RT?”
In addition to visiting personally with 54 legislators and/or their staffs, and leaving packets of information with all 256 senators and representatives, the group hosted a booth in the capitol rotunda where they played the AARC’s new Life & Breath video and conducted free pulmonary function testing. A reception followed at the end of the afternoon to thank the legislators and staff members for meeting with the therapists throughout the day.
Kauffman says the PSRC plans to keep up its efforts to lobby for these key respiratory health issues as the year progresses. “We also asked each RT to make a personal commitment to help her/his legislators with issues that are important to them so that the legislators know that RTs are committed to their community. While we consider the day a success, we told the group that we can’t stop with our efforts here and that we must continue to press each legislator to act on each of these issues.”