Celebrate Pulmonary Rehab Week March 15–21

March 9, 2009

National Pulmonary Rehabilitation Week kicks off on March 15, and never has there been a better time for AARC members who work in these programs to celebrate.

With a clear Medicare benefit on the way (as most everyone knows by now, legislation enacted last summer calls for CMS to implement such a benefit in January of 2010), both you and your patients will want to use this occasion to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done—and get out in your communities and let everyone else know how these programs help chronic lung patients breathe a little easier.

How can you get involved? The AARC has a wealth of resources at your disposal:

• Join the AARC’s Continuing Care/Rehabilitation Section
  If you’re a respiratory therapist working in rehab, this is a home for you. Not only will you receive newsletters and other resources aimed at your practice area, you can join a virtual community of fellow rehab professionals on the section email list.
• Improve your skills with our new COPD Educator Course
  The first session of this new program will take place in Miami Beach, FL, on May 6 and has been approved for 7.5 hours of CRCE. 
• Shop for products and promotions
  The AARC has educational materials and promotional products that will help you bring pulmonary rehab resources to your facility.
• Raise awareness of lung health
  Steer folks to the AARC’s patient education website and get them to use the resources we have online.
• Use our tobacco resources
  You know how important it is for your pulmonary rehab patients to kick the habit. Our resources include everything from guidelines to PowerPoint presentations. 
• Enhance the visibility of your organization
  Use the AARC’s press guide to learn how to interact with the media and use your facility’s PR department to help.
• Check out resources from the National Lung Health Education Program
  NLHEP has some great posters to encourage the use of spirometry to detect COPD that you can use to promote lung health in your community. 

You can also go to bat for your patients by writing your members of Congress in support of the AARC’s Medicare Respiratory Therapy Initiative—and asking your patients to do the same. Recently reintroduced as HR 1077/S 343, this legislation would make it much easier for your patients to receive smoking cessation, asthma management, medication education, and inhaler training from qualified RTs under Part B Medicare law—all services they may need as they continue their journey with chronic lung disease.

This page is located at: http://www.aarc.org/headlines/09/03/pulmonary_rehab_week/index.cfm