The Respiratory Care Department of SRRSH, has a 30-year history. It is a nationally recognized department that integrates clinical care, medical research, and teaching, providing respiratory therapy services across four hospital campuses. The department relies on advanced equipment and international cooperation to provide comprehensive respiratory support, airway management, pulmonary rehabilitation, and pulmonary function and cardiopulmonary testing for critically ill patients and those with chronic respiratory diseases and chronic respiratory failure.

As a clinical platform integrating clinical care, medical research, clinical teaching, PCCM respiratory therapy, respiratory rehabilitation, and lung base care, the department oversees the respiratory therapy work of four campuses: Qinchun, Qiantang, Grand Canal, and Shaoxing campuses. Equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and supported by the platform of Zhejiang University, the department has further developed in recent years under the guidance of Loma Linda University Health in the U.S. It has established an outpatient, perioperative, post-ICU, and critically-ill patient respiratory therapy full-process management model. Clinically, it provides respiratory support including lung function and cardiopulmonary exercise testing, respiratory rehabilitation, perioperative rehabilitation, and more for critically ill patients. In 2022, the department provided respiratory support to 7,000 patients, conducted 30,000 lung function and cardiopulmonary exercise tests, and performed 50,000 examinations. Over 30 years, the department has built a talent team composed of senior, intermediate, and junior professional technical personnel. The department currently has 60 employees, including three senior professional technical personnel and 18 with intermediate titles. Among them, one holds a Ph.D., 12 have master's degrees, and one is a doctoral supervisor. Five staff members have studied abroad in Europe and the United States. With a balanced academic structure, the team has great energy and motivation. The department's hospital-wide, full-process respiratory therapy management and smart healthcare system, RespCare, was awarded the third prize in the first National Digital Health Innovation Application Competition for the Precision Medicine Category.

For more than 30 years, the Respiratory Care Department has grown alongside the hospital, building a hospital-wide, full-process respiratory therapy management model for patients.

1. Management of Critically Ill Patients:

Member of the hospital emergency rescue team

Management of respiratory support for all patients with respiratory failure in the hospital

Management of artificial airways, bronchoscopy treatment for critically ill patients

Respiratory rehabilitation for acute and chronic respiratory diseases

Non-invasive sequential weaning, programmed weaning for difficult-to-wean patients

Protective ventilation, lung recruitment, and the application of new ventilator modes for ARDS patients

2. Hospital-Wide Ward Management:

Respiratory therapy consultations

Respiratory function assessment and lung rehabilitation for perioperative patients

Application of the ERAS perioperative respiratory therapy tiered management protocol

Post-ICU respiratory therapy

Respiratory support and respiratory rehabilitation for patients with respiratory failure

3. Comprehensive Diagnostic and Treatment Center:

Respiratory function assessment and lung rehabilitation for chronic respiratory diseases and chronic respiratory failure patients

Lung function diagnostic testing

Cardiopulmonary exercise diagnostic testing

Exhaled nitric oxide testing and CaNO exhalation testing

Allergen testing

Assessment and rehabilitation therapy for chronic respiratory disease patients

Diagnosis and respiratory support and rehabilitation therapy for diaphragmatic dysfunction and chronic respiratory failure patients

Base for specialized respiratory therapy, respiratory 

rehabilitation, and lung function training in PCCM, China

One of the first excellent units for standardized respiratory rehabilitation construction by the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine

Deputy Chair Unit of the Respiratory Rehabilitation Specialty Committee of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation

Chair Unit of the Respiratory Therapy and Rehabilitation Specialty Committee of the Zhejiang Rehabilitation Medicine Association

Vice Chair Unit of the Respiratory Therapy Group of the Chinese Society of Pathophysiology for Critical Care Medicine

Continuing Education Member Unit of the International Council for Respiratory Care

Undertakes two projects from the Provincial Science and Technology Department, participates in two major projects, and is responsible for one funded by the National Natural Science Foundation

Published 42 SCI papers

Edited and co-authored 8 expert essays and consensus papers