NC Licensure Board Endorses AARC's Uniform Reporting Manual

		NC Licensure Board Endorses AARC's Uniform Reporting Manual DALLAS (October 8, 2008) - The North Carolina Respiratory Care Board (NCRCB) has endorsed the American Association for Respiratory Care's (AARC) Uniform Reporting Manual (URM) as a tool to assist acute care hospitals in establishing respiratory therapy staffing standards and promoting patient safety. The URM is a manual that helps quantify the number of full time employees required to deliver services. It is a resource that assists and guides administrators in staffing decisions based on service demand. The manual includes standards, procedure descriptions, CPT codes and links to applicable Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG). The manual can serve as a resource for standardization in both terminology and processes of care, which can be the foundation of a benchmarking system. North Carolina respiratory therapists hope that other states will follow NC's lead by seeking endorsement for the manual from their own licensing boards. “The nationwide endorsement/adoption of the URM by state licensing boards may facilitate the process for studying cost reductions by utilizing the AARC benchmarking tool,” says Dan Grady, RRT. About the AARC The American Association for Respiratory Care, headquartered in Dallas , is a professional association of respiratory therapists that focuses primarily on respiratory therapy education and research. The organization's goals are to ensure that respiratory patients receive safe and effective care from qualified professionals as well as supporting respiratory health care providers. The association continues to advocate on behalf of pulmonary patients for appropriate access to respiratory services provided by qualified professionals. Further information about the AARC and how to become a respiratory therapist are available at www.AARC.org . Contact: Beth Binkley 972-243-2272 binkley@aarc.org # # #