PRINCETON, W.Va. (WVDN) – The latest episode of “Appalachian Care Chronicles,” created by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, provides an up close look at the innovative work of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital’s team of respiratory therapists, led by Eric Rodgers. This new episode will air on West Virginia Public Broadcasting at 6 p.m. tonight.
Since taking the helm as the Director of Respiratory Therapy in 2022, Rodgers has implemented several new ventilator protocols that have enabled and empowered the hospital’s respiratory therapists to oversee and manage this specialized care more closely, leading to a significant reduction in ventilator-associated events, such a pneumonia, and helping their patients breathe on their own again faster.
“Since Eric has been here and brought along these protocols, we can go ahead and start weaning the patients from sedation and they can start weaning from the ventilator,” said Respiratory Therapist Josh Testerman, who works with Rodgers. “It is a big advantage for that patient, simple as that.”
Throughout the episode, listeners meet a variety of respiratory therapists, including Rodger and Testerman, that are working with all ages across the hospital, from the ICU to outpatient sleep study rooms.
“If you truly have a serving soul, and you want to have an impact on humanity,” Rodgers said, “respiratory provides you the ability to work with those patients who need you the most.”
Respiratory therapists must earn an associate or bachelor’s degree and pass a certification exam from the National Board of Respiratory Care in order to care for patients, and in southern West Virginia, where Rodgers works, more of these specialty-trained medical professionals are greatly needed.
“Appalachian Care Chronicles” — now in its fifth and final season — provides first-hand accounts of healthcare professionals’ extraordinary journeys as they work behind the scenes and on the frontlines to care for their communities in every corner of West Virginia. In season five, listeners will travel from the halls of Princeton’s hospital to a nursing home in Elkins, an ultrasound appointment in Charleston to the scene of an emergency in Huntington.
“With demand especially high in West Virginia, we hope this storytelling project helps more people picture themselves in healthcare careers that offer stability, opportunity, and meaningful impact,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker, West Virginia’s Chancellor of Higher Education.
To listen to Eric’s episode and the full story collection, visit www.appalachiancarechronicles.com or find it on Spotify.
