Fall/Winter 2012
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www.matheny.org
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908-234-0011
Respiratory Therapy Expansion Positions Matheny for the Future
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have experience, he says, “ranging espiratory therapy is a medical given the wide range of complex specialty that provides a wide medical conditions experienced by our from 25-week-old neonates in a NICU range of therapeutic and patients. The expansion of respiratory to 100-year-old ventilator-dependent diagnostic services to patients with therapy positions us for the future, patients in a long-term assisted facility. cardio-pulmonary issues. Heart and should we be asked to care for patients We do everything we can to make sure lung disorders may not be part of with even more complicated issues.” every one of Matheny’s patients gets Matheny's patients’ primary diagnoses, Before joining Matheny’s staff, Cary to experience every facet of life they but the importance of monitoring and had been lead open heart surgery possibly can.” treating these conditions among Respiratory therapy at the Matheny population cannot Matheny was previously part be underestimated. of the nursing department. Matheny’s newly expanded Now, Cary reports directly to respiratory therapy department, Dr. Eddey. Even though it is which is directed by Dan Cary no longer considered part of RRT, consists of four full-time nursing services, the teamwork therapists and three who work and cooperation between on a per diem basis. While respiratory therapists and the department is not yet in nurses is extremely important. operation on a 24/7 basis, Cary And having a fully-staffed says, “We are moving toward respiratory therapy department 24/7, and a respiratory therapist has made the nurses’ jobs is always on call.” The RRTs easier and less stressful “The Teamwork between respiratory therapists and nurses is extremely and CRTs, adds Cary, “play a nurses at Matheny,” says Cary, important, says Dan Cary RRT, far left, director of Matheny’s respiratory critical role in the lives of patients therapy department. “now have a group of people with developmental disabilities and respiratory therapist at Morristown they can rely on, allowing them to respiratory illness. They are responsible Medical Center. He has an associates concentrate on nursing.” for patient assessments, care planning, degree in applied science from That is confirmed by the nurses. staff education and providing various Sussex County Community College “I love having a full respiratory therapy treatment modalities.” (a collaborative program with the staff,” says Carol Enos RN. “It means Gary E. Eddey, MD, vice president County College of Morris). His time so much to have that support and and chief medical officer, believes spent at Morristown, which is a large expertise. They have ideas for treatment Matheny’s new respiratory therapy acute care facility, Cary believes, “has we might not have thought of." department, “advances us from a clinical prepared me for the many challenges Follow us on Facebook and Twitter perspective. The role of respiratory that Matheny’s patients face.” The therapists here is critically important, respiratory therapists at Matheny now BLOGS