Director, Respiratory Services
Compass Pointe Healthcare System
Benton, AR
AARC Member since 2001
AARC Activities
Member since 2001
Related Activities
American College of Healthcare Administrators
Education
AS, California College, National City, CA 1994
BS, Lexington U, 2003
RRT, LRCP, LNHA
What AARC or Chartered Affiliate offices/positions have you held where you feel you made a significant contribution to our profession? What is the contribution and how will you apply it to your new position if elected?
I have been an RT for nearly 30 years. During this time, I have been an advocate for our profession. We are a multi-skilled profession and we deserve this recognition. In the past, I have been the manager of cardio-pulmonary departments that covered cardiology, neurology and sleep labs. I currently serve as the Director for Respiratory Services for Compass Pointe Healthcare System, where I oversee the respiratory services for 60 skilled nursing homes and 5 LTACs. As the first RT for the company, I have been able to place RTs back into the SNF environment and have increased the number of new respiratory care transitional units (RCTU) each year for our company. We have gained support and recognition from our corporate board of governors for not only adding these much-needed services but also for saving the company money through proper management of the residents and prevention of readmissions. Our location in Hot Springs, Arkansas was recently acknowledged for prevention of avoidable readmissions by the American Healthcare Association.
What strengths do you possess that will help distinguish you as a contemporary leader that will take your specific specialty section into the future and make the AARC a better resource for your section members that it has ever been?
I continue to promote our profession each day. In Sept 2013, our Clearwater, Florida ventilator facility became the first nationally accredited ventilator unit. It is this type of recognition I want to bring to the forefront for our profession. Our company hopes to have a second vent unit obtain its accreditation this year. As we place more RTCU, we are marketing this service out to the hospitals so they will know we are committed to increasing the standard of care at our facilities. I would like to see more of these units be opened across the US to further expose the capabilities of our profession. It is this type of activity that we can communicate throughout our profession to our fellow members indicating that we can improve respiratory technology in the SNF areas and fully utilize their education and training as an RT. As I promote this to our company, RT’s as a profession are seeing evidence of this. I hope to add 3-5 new RT homes this year. This is what I want the profession to see... you can grow. Be persistent.
In your opinion what are the biggest roadblocks to increasing your specialty section membership and what will you do to eliminate these barriers?
The biggest roadblock I continually face is keeping current with advancements within the RT profession. I ask that all RTs who work for our company become involved with the AARC and the specialty sections so we can stay informed as to what is happening across the profession. To eliminate this barrier I would see who I have in this section and ask them to be more involved. Communication is the key. There is so much information that is posted in the specialty sections that is amazing! I read my sections each day to make sure I can keep up with the changes so I can stay ahead and not fall behind.