Ventilator Care

St. Elias Specialty Hospital's team cares for patients who require ventilator Ventilator Care St. Elias Specialty Hospital's team cares for patients who require ventilator care or respiratory care due to an injury, medically complex disease or because of other respiratory or neurological problems. We assist patients in reaching their highest level of independent function. Our respiratory team prides itself in a very high success rate in weaning patients from mechanical ventilators and helping patients re-establish breathing on their own. Our 60-bed hospital is -accredited by The Joint Commission and is staffed by highly skilled nurses, respiratory therapists along with a physician team that sees each patient on a daily basis. The team works together to support a 24-hour a day ventilator weaning program, seven days a week.

Each patient is personally evaluated by the multi-disciplinary team and the care plan is goal-oriented for the patient's diagnosis and prognosis. St. Elias staff recognizes that patients on ventilators are often anxious about the weaning process; therefore ventilator patients are on special telemetry and have a very low nurse to patient ratio.

Patient Services

Respiratory therapy is provided 24- hours a day, 7- days a week by certified respiratory therapists to help patients continue the goal of ventilator weaning and maintaining adequate airway. All therapists have completed rigorous orientation processes to work at St. Elias and are required to pass annual competencies to maintain employment. Every therapist is ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) certified. Physical, rehabilitation and speech therapy services are available to help patients re-learn activities of daily living, mobility and speech skills. Patients are educated on how to adapt to any equipment that may become a part of their daily lives on discharge. They are also counseled on how to maintain habits of good daily living such as diet and exercise to prevent further illness and possible infection.

Patient Care Team

• Highly skilled Internal Medicine Hospitalists 
• Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine specialist 
• Infectious Disease specialists 
• Respiratory therapists 
• Licensed nurses (many of them ICU nurses) 
• Speech Therapists, including a TBI certified Speech Therapist 
• Occupational therapists 
• Social workers 
• Spiritual Care 
• Case Managers 
• Dietitian 
• In house 24 hour pharmacy 

Family Members and Friends

St. Elias considers the family to be a critical part of the patient's success in weaning from a ventilator or to adapting to a productive lifestyle if ventilator weaning is not possible. At St. Elias, family members are included in the treatment plan and more importantly in the discharge-planning phase. The family is included in working with the dietitian, case managers, physicians, nurses, therapists and social worker. We have found the most successful patient outcomes to be when the patient's family is involved and we encourage and welcome the patient family to become part of the St. Elias team.