(WILMINGTON, Del. – April 2, 2021)

ChristianaCare has earned its second consecutive Apex Recognition Award from the American Association for Respiratory Care for excellence in respiratory care in the acute care setting.

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ChristianaCare is one of only 14 acute care health systems nationwide to receive Apex, bestowed to health systems that demonstrate best practices in respiratory care.

Respiratory therapists care for patients who have difficulty breathing because of chronic illnesses such as asthma and emphysema and patients who need emergency breathing support. ChristianaCare’s respiratory therapists have been on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 can cause fatal lung complications such as pneumonia, sepsis, and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

“Achieving back-to-back Apex recognitions demonstrates the value of the amazing team of respiratory therapists who serve their patients with love and excellence,” said John Emberger, BS, RRT-AACS, FAARC, CPHQ, director of Respiratory Care. “Despite the unforeseen challenges that this pandemic has brought, our respiratory therapists continue to be exceptional today and even better tomorrow, serving our community with outstanding clinical care.”

ChristianaCare’s respiratory care team is comprised of more than 150 caregivers. They manage the ventilators, airways, and other critical supportive therapies for patients at ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital and Christiana Hospital. Guided by ChristianaCare’s organizational values of love and excellence, they champion best practices and evidence-based medicine, and they lead quality improvement projects that improve patient safety. This supportive system contributes to why ChristianaCare’s respiratory therapists are recognized by the American Association for Respiratory Care as among the best in the nation.

“Respiratory care departments everywhere are coming off a hard year,” said Sheri Tooley, BSRT, RRT, RRT-NPS, AE-C, CPFT, FAARC, AARC President. “Their skills and stamina have been tested like never before. As a vital component to a patient’s care team, respiratory therapists work hard each day to deliver quality patient care. These teams reach high standards and bring specialized skills, unique to respiratory care departments. We are thrilled to honor these organizations as Apex Recognition Award recipients.”

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About ChristianaCare

Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,430 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute.

ChristianaCare is nationally recognized as a great place to work, rated by Forbes as the 2nd best health system for diversity and inclusion, and the 29th best health system to work for in the United States, and by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in IT. ChristianaCare is rated by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals and continually ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek and other national quality ratings. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With its groundbreaking Center for Virtual Health and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care.

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