Understanding and Applying the Science of Respiratory Care
Presented by Garry Kauffman
Nonfinancial: Gary Kauffman is an AARC chartered affiliate consultant. He is a member of the AARC Benchmarking Committee, the AARC Advanced Practice RT Task Force, and the AARC Strategic Planning Committee, and is a Respiratory Care author and reviewer. He’s also an AARC Times/Newsroom author and reviewer, an AARC Safe and Effective Staffing Guide project leader, and an ARCF Education Recognition Award judge. Garry has no competing nonfinancial interests or relationships with regard to the content presented in this course.
The profession of respiratory care had its origins in the later 1940s but really blossomed in the 1960s. Since then, we have seen a veritable explosion of technology, from supply items to capital equipment. While some have been validated at higher levels of scientific inquiry, we cannot expect all interventions to be validated at the highest level of evidence: randomized controlled trials. Instead, we make decisions based on the highest level of evidence available at the time. In this course, we will review the drivers and priorities of the healthcare system, discuss the value of respiratory therapists within that system, and examine the different levels of scientific evidence to help the RT make appropriate care decisions and provide optimal respiratory services.
Meet your instructor
Garry Kauffman
Garry W. Kauffman is a registered respiratory therapist with more than 40 years of experience. Garry was selected to be an AARC Fellow (FAARC) based on his contributions to the profession at the national level. Garry received his MPA from the Pennsylvania State University and achieved the distinction of board certification in…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Healthcare System: Drivers and Status
To understand how RTs providing respiratory care services can best provide value, it’s important to understand the drivers and priorities of the healthcare system. This chapter reviews both the historical healthcare system in which our profession got its start and how healthcare is delivered, reimbursed, and measured currently.
2. Performance Categories
Like the delivery of other services, the delivery of healthcare services is highly dependent upon understanding the goals and creating metrics to gauge performance. This chapter provides the information essential to every respiratory therapist as to the performance domains of cost, safety, quality, and engagement. For each performance domain, the presenter provides recommendations for how to select appropriate metrics to gauge performance.
3. Examining the Evidence to Guide Respiratory Care Practice
With the plethora of information available to respiratory therapists regarding supplies, devices, and capital equipment, it is imperative that the RT, whether a manager or frontline clinician, be able to distinguish between marketing materials and validated evidence. In this chapter, the presenter provides an overview and examples to illustrate the hierarchy of scientific evidence to guide the RT to make appropriate decisions and achieve optimization of respiratory services.
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