Respiratory Therapy
At Medical Center Enterprise our Respiratory Therapy department provides a wide variety of services. Respiratory Therapists manage the patients, inpatient and outpatients, with respiratory problems and also provides diagnostics for cardiac and neuro patients.
Diagnostics testing includes:
- Electrocardiogram (EKG) records, on graph paper, the electrical impulses traveling through the heart. The purpose is to evaluate the heart’s function, to determine the presence of abnormal electrical impulses and to detect heart damage.
- Pulmonary Function Test is a series of tests that measure lung function. The tests provide information about the amount of air that a person’s lungs can hold, and how effectively the lungs work. The test can be used to diagnose respiratory conditions including asthma.
- Cardiac Stress Test is a noninvasive procedure performed on a treadmill to help diagnose heart disease. More extensive studies are combined with radioisotopes.
- Electroencephalogram (EEG) detects abnormalities in the brain waves or electrical activity of the brain.
- Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) is a blood test that is used to evaluate the lungs' ability to provide blood with oxygen and remove carbon dioxide, and to measure the pH (acidity) of the blood.
Each of these have specific instructions that the patient must follow in order to get accurate results, so it is important that they are scheduled ahead of time by their physician with our department.