The NSRC Times is a publication of the Nevada
Society for Respiratory Care. The goal of this
newsletter is to keep the respiratory care
community informed of activities of the NSRC as
well as other pertinent information as it relates to
the practice of respiratory care.
The officers currently serving on the Board of
Directors are: President Lori Johnston;
Immediate Past President Pam Biglow-Hearst;
President-elect Connie Small; Vice President
Sandy Ollivier; Secretary-Treasurer Angela Trail;
Directors-at-Large Roger Moorhead, Bonnie
Weaver, Karen Shaw, and Cecilia Degenhart;
Delegates John Steinmetz and Dan Small.

Upcoming Elections
All AARC members, please fill out your ballots for
the annual NSRC elections and mail them in
promptly! They are due by July 31st. Results of
the elections will be announced at the annual
business meeting the third Tuesday of
September.

Sputum Bowl Competition
This year’s third annual Nevada Sputum Bowl will
be held in September. The tentative date is
Tuesday September 21st following our business
meeting. The time and location will be finalized
soon. Watch your emails for flyers for more
information. It is not too late for practitioners to
put a team together. Or if you would like to
participate, but don’t have your own team
organized, we can put one together. Anyone
interested in joining the fun, contact Connie
Small at conkerdoodle@hotmail.com. You have
until August 15th to decide, but the sooner the
better!

NSRC Logo Contest
The NSRC is looking for a new logo. You can help
us create a design and win $100.00. Go on-line
for contest entry forms and other details. Rules
will be posted on-line also.  See us at our website
www.nsrc.us. The winning design will be featured
on NSRC stationary, merchandise, and all thing
NSRC. The contest ends September 15, so get
those creative juices flowing!


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   ·     Nevada’s PACT Representatives Speak
As our government leaders fight and squabble for
Health Care reform, Respiratory Therapists
representing each state for the AARC are fighting
for the rights of our patients to have additional
access to physician care. Specifically, access to
quality education about  lung function and how to
gain improved “quality of life” in their challenge of
living with Lung Disease.

2010 has been designated as the “Year of the
Lung”. Our goal, when we approached our nation’s
political leaders as your PACT Representatives, was
to move forward HR1077 / S343: Medicare Part B:
The Respiratory Therapy Initiative.  This bill, if
passed, will allow certain qualifying Registered
Respiratory Therapists with a Bachelors degree to
work under the general supervision of a physician.  
Changing the language would allow a Therapist to
provide hospital follow up, medication review and
education, disease management, as well as
evaluate compliance with equipment and medication
administration in a physician’s office or outpatient
clinic setting without the Doctor being present.  
The Therapist would work as a Physicians’
“Extender.”
We know in published data from 2008, our
population in Nevada of 2.5 million people;
approximately 200,000 have diagnosed Asthma
and 100,000 have been diagnosed with
COPD/Chronic Bronchitis (adult/pediatrics
combined). The estimate of those individuals with
undiagnosed Lung disease is two to three times
that amount.
AARC PACT representatives were also given data
from a MED PACT Report to Congress published in
2007: Promoting Greater Efficiency in Medicare. In
that report it listed re-admission data for the top
seven diagnoses—the top two being COPD and
Pneumonia. National figures for one year showed a
10.7% re-admission rate for COPD, at a cost of
345 million dollars. Pneumonia showed a 9.5% re-
admission rate at a cost of 533 million dollars. This
was just one year, for Medicare patients only!  We
discussed the opportunity for Respiratory to “step
up to the plate” and effectively change these
figures in the future. Being accessible—not just in
the inpatient arena,
NSRC TIMES
A Newsletter of the Nevada Society for Respiratory Care
but in a physician’s office, allows us to teach
patients “how” and “why” they should take their
medications, “when” and “why” they should use
their Oxygen and equipment.  They would gain
understanding and achieve greater compliance in
their own disease management.  From a Medicare
perspective, all this would equal less hospital re-
admissions for COPD and Pneumonia.
This year the AARC PACT partnered with the Alpha
One Foundation in our Congressional and Senate
visits. I was joined by Amber Albenese, an Alpha-
One patient from Las Vegas. Several individuals
with this genetic Lung disease told their stories
and reiterated the value of Respiratory Therapy as
a profession and how hard it is to access us
outside a hospital setting. As Amber stated in one
of our meetings, “I could have learned more and
done more for my lung disease if I had had access
to a Respiratory Therapist when I was first
diagnosed. I was given breathing medications but
no instructions. I didn’t benefit at all from their use
until a hospital admission when a Respiratory
Therapist enlightened me”.  
Our battle is not over in the political arena.  I
encourage you, after you’ve read this, to go to the
AARC web site. Click on the Capitol connection to
write letters in support of this bill. It’s easy, its
important, and it’s for all of the patients we see
every day in our jobs.

Hoops for Hospice
Saturday April 17, the CSN Cardiorespiratory
Sciences Class of 2010 organized and hosted
“Hoops for Hospice,” to benefit Nathan Adelson
Hospice.  The Hoops for Hospice tournament had
the support of approximately 200 participants and
spectators, including 22 team entries.
The event provided this local non-profit a venue to
inform the community of the services they
provide.  Nathan Adelson Hospice has been
providing quality care in the community for over 30
years.  They have cared for over 44,000 patients
who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness
and have a life expectancy measured in weeks or
months rather than years.
The event would not have been possible without
the generosity of our sponsor, Food 4 Less, and
our many volunteers and supporters!  The event
raised over $1200 for Nathan Adelson Hospice and
will surely touch the lives of many.
   Recap on H1N1 Flu Season
The 2009-2010 flu season has ended. Almost all
influenza cases tested this flu season were
influenza A, with H1N1 the overwhelmingly
predominant strain. The largest period of flu
activity began in October and peaked in November.
Clark County reported 40 H1N1-related deaths
since spring 2009.  
Interestingly, the CDC reported that 62% of
healthcare workers had gotten vaccinated for
seasonal influenza by mid-January — a record high
— but only 37% of them were vaccinated against
the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus. Safety of
the vaccine was the main concern cited by health
workers as the reason for not getting the H1N1
vaccine.

Upcoming Events
July 16-18, 2010  AARC Summer Forum
Marco Island, FL
July 31, 2010 NSRC election ballots due
July 31, 2010 Logo Contest entries due
Sept. 21, 2010 Annual NSRC Business Meeting
and Sputum Bowl
Location and time to be announced
Dec. 6-9, 2010  AARC International Congress
Las Vegas, NV

Meeting Information
The NSRC meets the third Tuesday of every
month at Kindred Hospital, 2250 East Flamingo
Road, Las Vegas, in the Board Room at 7:00 pm.
It is conference-called with Renown Medical Center,
21 Locust Street, Reno, NV in the Respiratory
Therapy Department. Additional conferencing is
available for any outlying areas of Nevada that
wish to participate through prior communication
with one of the board members.  Everyone is
welcome to attend.

Contact Information
If you have any news of interest that you would
like included in upcoming issues of the newsletter,
please contact anyone on the Board, or Bonnie
Weaver via the NSRC website, or Connie Small at
conkerdoodle@hotmail.com, or Lori Johnston at
ljohnston@apollo.edu. The mailing address for the
NSRC is:
Nevada Society for Respiratory Care
PO Box 28686
Las Vegas, NV 89126

You can also visit our website at www.nsrc.us .
See you at the next meeting!