Title: The Use of Therapist Driven Protocols for Assessment of Respiratory Distress in the Emergency Room
Abstract: One of the difficulties of a Respiratory Therapist (RT) in the Emergency Department (ED) is treating people with respiratory distress as soon as possible. In some cases, when it is busy the doctors may not be able to evaluate soon enough for treatment. In these cases it is better for the RT to be proactive, rather than reactive within the ED. So a scale/ model was made to be used for therapists to diagnosis and to start treatments/ BiPAP (with a doctors approval), to prevent the patient to be intubated or admitted.