Livingston Respiratory Therapist Wins National Award

For Immediate Release

IRVING, TX (January 21, 2005) – Respiratory therapist Ernest E. Gantt, RRT, CEO of Respiratory Support Services (RSS) in Livingston, TN, has won the American Association for Respiratory Care's (AARC) annual Long Term Care Specialty Practitioner of the Year Award. 

Gantt received the honor at the recent AARC International Respiratory Congress held in New Orleans , LA.

As CEO of RSS, Gantt has worked for many years to ensure patients in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) receive respiratory care services from educated and trained respiratory therapists. By using respiratory therapists to deliver care in nursing homes, he and his company have been able to develop a successful program that helps ventilator patients breath on their own. The company has also developed standards of care for ventilator services in Tennessee that call for respiratory therapists to be available 24 hours a day. Those standards have now been adopted by the Tennessee Society for Respiratory Care.  

“As patients are being transferred to SNFs with increasingly complex illnesses, it is essential that they have access to services from a respiratory therapist,” says Gantt. “Without this expertise, patients are at risk and often have to return to the hospital needlessly.”

The AARC was proud to honor Gantt with this special award. 

Respiratory Therapists (RTs) are specially trained and licensed respiratory health care professionals assisting physicians in diagnosis, treatment, and management of respiratory diseases. RTs provide care in hospitals, outpatient centers, physicians' offices, skilled nursing facilities, and patients' homes.

The American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) is a not-for-profit, professional organization, consisting of 36,000 respiratory therapists, physicians, and other health care professionals. AARC is dedicated to assisting persons with respiratory diseases receive safe and effective respiratory care.

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Contact: Beth Binkley
Binkley@aarc.org
American Association For Respiratory Care
9425 N MacArthur Blvd, Suite 100, Irving, TX 75063
972-406-4657, 927-243-2272