TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation is celebrating a very special Respiratory Therapy Care Week this year. The tribe’s W.W. Hastings Hospital recently developed a new department for respiratory care.
“Our department is only 5 months old,” said Richard Smith, respiratory supervisor for Cherokee Nation W.W. Hastings Hospital. “In that short amount of time, we are already averaging between 15 and 20 patients per day, and we expect to be seeing two or three times that many patients in the next six months.”
The department offers oxygen therapy treatments, ventilator care, BiPAP and CPAP, chest physiotherapy and pulmonary function studies. Soon, the department will begin offering sleep studies, as well.
“We’re a small but rapidly growing department,” Smith said. “We are glad to be here to assist our patients in a full-time care facility.”
National Respiratory Care Week runs through Saturday.
Information: 458-36100, ext. 5113.
