Respiratory Care

The Respiratory Care Department at St. Clair Hospital delivers comprehensive, consistent, state-of–the art pulmonary services to patients.

The department treats patients of all ages, offering a full continuum of care, ranging from diagnostic testing, Emergency Department care, inpatient and outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation, and education.

There are five distinct components within the Respiratory Care Department. Each area offers an extensive range of services provided by highly qualified professionals:

• Respiratory Care
• Sleep Disorders Center
• Intensive Care Unit
• Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program
• Pulmonary Health Education
• Smoking/Vaping Cessation Classes

For more information about any of our programs and services, please contact us at 412.942.2000 or click here to request copies of our informational materials.

The Respiratory Care Department

The Respiratory Care Department offers patients a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic options, including oxygen therapy, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and outpatient testing services, including pulmonary function testing and bronchial provocation testing. 

Sleep Disorders Center

More than 40 million Americans suffer from some type of chronic sleep disorder. The Sleep Disorders Center is equipped to diagnose and treat various types of disorders, including insomnia, narcolepsy (inability to stay awake despite a good night’s sleep), and sleep apnea (failure to breathe during sleep).

The center is staffed by respiratory therapists and registered polysomnographers specializing in sleep disorders. Patients are referred for evaluation and testing by their primary care physicians and monitored during an overnight stay at the Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center.

The Sleep Disorders Center offers home sleep testing. Patients denied an in-lab study by their insurer might be eligible for a home diagnostic study. For more information please call 412.942.2035.

In addition to testing and treatment, the center’s staff conducts frequent presentations for the community.

For more information on the Sleep Disorders Center, please click here.

Intensive Care Unit

Working with the intensivists is a multidisciplinary team of professionals including critical care nurses, a pharmacist, a nutritionist, respiratory therapists, social workers and case managers. During the course of a patient’s ICU stay, this team makes rounds allowing for immediate answers to a patient’s questions and for physicians’ orders to be carried through before the team leaves a patient’s side. This level of care is unique to the area and has traditionally been found only in a university or tertiary care setting. The Intensive Care Unit combines the latest in critical technology with an exceptional staff of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals whose role is to care for the 1,000 patients admitted annually to the ICU. Our care is enhanced by the use of physician intensivists – specially trained physicians who coordinate care for critically ill patients.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation / Pulmonary Health Education

The Second Wind Pulmonary Rehabilitation program includes both inpatient and outpatient services in conjunction with St. Clair Hospital’s Heart Center/Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. The outpatient areas include two components:

• the self-referred Pulmonary Health Education Classes and
• a Pulmonary Exercise Program which requires a physician’s referral.

Registered nurses and certified exercise specialists conduct the exercise portion of the program that combines outpatient exercise and ongoing education to help people manage potentially debilitating conditions such as asthma, emphysema as well as other types of chronic pulmonary problems. Click here for more information.The Pulmonary Health Education classes provide a multi-disciplinary team of health care providers designed to educate and support individuals living with chronic lung disease, such as COPD and asthma as well as other types of breathing problems.

Smoking Cessation Programs

The Respiratory Care Department offers a variety of programs and resources to help people quit smoking or quit using chewing tobacco. Trained smoking cessation facilitators and other health care personnel are available to answer your questions.

Services include:

• Smoke Free for Life – an eight class cessation and support group for adults.
• Individual Counseling – may be scheduled with a smoking cessation facilitator.

To obtain materials on how to quit smoking or for more information on St. Clair Hospital’s quit smoking programs, please call 412.942.2008.

Information and quitting help is available through the PA free quit line at 1.800.QUIT NOW (1.800.784.8669). The telephone based program offers free support and counseling with trained facilitators for Pennsylvania residents OR  click here for information about the PA Free Quitline and other web based programs.