Optimizing Respiratory Therapy Services: A Continuum of Care from Hospital to Home.

The CRTO led Optimizing Respiratory Therapy Services: A Continuum of Care from Hospital to Home project, funded through a HealthForceOntario grant, is now complete. The intent of this initiative was to provide RTs with the tools necessary to enable the successful transition of patients requiring long-term ventilation (LTV) and/ or artificial airway management from the acute care setting into the community. As a result of this 18-month project, 30 individuals were moved out of an ICU and into their homes.  In addition, a training manual was developed to assist both the hospital and community-based RTs in taking a leadership role in the identification, discharge and education of these patients and their caregivers.  The manual includes material for the therapist as well as educational material for patients of all ages who are either invasively or non-invasively ventilated and/or require on-going tracheostomy care.

To view the final report for the project that has been submitted to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care click here.

To view the training manual, please click here. Please feel free to print all or part of the manual and distribute as you see fit.

For more information about this initiative, please contact Carole Hamp at hamp@crto.on.ca or by telephone at (416) 591-7800 or 1 (800) 261-0528 x33.

The CRTO will be holding a one-day conference on Thursday, September 16th, 2010 at the Delta Meadowvale Resort & Conference Centre in Mississauga, just prior to the RTSO Fall Forum. The focus will be the RT role in community care of clients requiring long-term ventilation and/ or airway management. Please follow this link to the day’s agenda www.crto.on.ca/pdf/Misc/Conference_Agenda.pdf

To register for this event, please follow this link to the RTSO’s website:

http://www.rtso.ca/forum_registration_2