Definition of Home Respiratory Services

American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC)
Definition of Home Respiratory Care Services

Home respiratory care is defined as those prescribed respiratory care services provided in a patient's personal residence. Prescribed respiratory care services include, but are not limited to, patient assessment and monitoring, diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and services, disease management, and patient and caregiver education. These services are provided on a physician's written or verbal order and practiced under appropriate law, regulation, and medical direction. A patient's place of residence may include, but is not limited to, single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, assisted living facilities, retirement communities, and skilled nursing facilities. The goal of home respiratory care is to achieve the optimum level of patient function through goal setting, education, the administration of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and services, disease management, and health promotion.

It is the position of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) that the respiratory therapist- by virtue of education, training, and competency testing- is the most competent health care professional to provide prescribed home respiratory care. The complexities of the provision of home respiratory care are such that the public is placed at a significant risk of injury when respiratory care services are provided by unqualified persons, either licensed or unlicensed, rather than by persons with appropriate education, training, credentials, and competency. Therefore, the AARC recommends that practitioners who are employed to provide home respiratory care possess the Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) or Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credential awarded by the National Board for Respiratory Care, as well as state licensure or certification where applicable. In addition, the AARC supports efforts to improve access to home respiratory care through improvements in public and private insurance coverage, state and federal reimbursement programs, and enhancement of services in provider models1

1 AARC Position Statement on Home Respiratory Care Services. December 14, 2000.