The Respiratory Therapy team recently found solutions to help Intermountain prepare for a potential surge in COVID-19 patients. The group supported surge planning by providing ventilator tracking data, directions on how to increase ventilator quantity if needed, and a solution to help more respiratory therapists become licensed – which will all help provide better care for patients.
1) Surge strategy and ventilator tracking: Respiratory Therapy leaders, in tandem with their continuous improvement partners, feverishly consulted on pandemic surge plans, strategically tracking all available respiratory therapists for sharing based on experience and training. They also identified and labeled all ventilators to ensure an adequate number of the types of ventilators are available for all levels of life support.
Carrie Winberg
Ted Bond, Carrie Winberg, and Tanner Trujillo helped with the creation of the ventilator inventory tracking dashboard, which required the tireless work of on-site respiratory therapists to physically locate and tag ventilators at each facility. Daily utilization data is available to Intermountain and federal government leaders thanks to daily reporting by the respiratory therapist caregivers at each facility.
Respiratory therapists will flex their support across the system, according to Kim Bennion, administrative director of respiratory care services.
“Respiratory therapists will now be part of the TeleCritical Care desk team which will allow some of the most experienced RTs to assist ICUs across the state in caring for a larger number of patients,” Kim says. “They’ll be providing oversight for ventilator and protocol management.”
Ted Bond
2) Increasing the number of potential ventilators with FDA waivers: Ensuring adequate amount of equipment is part of planning for the surge, and Respiratory Therapy teamed with clinical and compliance partners to identify how to expand available quantities of ventilators based on an FDA waiver.
Clinical compliance partner Jessie Morris says caregivers on the Respiratory Care Team are the right people to handle this COVID-19 response. “They identify smaller issues before they become larger and they work incredibly well together,” she says. “All levels of leadership, from frontline managers to directors to the executive director, are very involved and very supportive of one another. They’re the best team I think to handle a COVID-19 response.”
The waiver allows providers to use ventilators manufactured for other environments, beyond their indicated shelf life, and with more flexibility without seeking approval. For example, should a shortage of ventilators occur, using powered emergency ventilators and anesthesia cart ventilators for patients needing mechanical ventilation or using Homecare and transport ventilators in a hospital setting could be a last resort.
Tanner Trujillo
3) Helping recent graduates become licensed respiratory therapists: When COVID-19 restrictions began changing normal life, Intermountain jumped in to mitigate the shutdown of testing centers for recently graduated respiratory therapy students who needed to pass their board examinations in order to obtain their licenses to practice. The accrediting body, the National Board for Respiratory Care, granted a request that allowed Intermountain to proctor the exams, which the board has never done before. Without passing the national credentialing exam, students wouldn’t be able to practice in the state of Utah. Adding more respiratory therapists to the care team is crucial because of the symptoms of COVID-19.
“Utah has greater needs for respiratory therapists than the schools are currently able to support with graduates,” says Shawna Murray, clinical services education manager. “Every graduate is important and needed more now than ever for the rapidly growing and expanding respiratory services. We’re excited to help new graduates take their place with the other great Intermountain caregivers as licensed clinical professionals.”