Doctors Hospital has been recognized for quality respiratory care.

“Our primary mission is establishing and maintaining airways,” said Doug Lammey, CRT, director of the Cardiopulmonary Services at Doctors Hospital of Manteca.

“I have a great staff – I’m really proud of that,” he said in accepting the “Quality Respiratory Care” recognition from the American Association for Respiratory Care.

Lammey said his staff of 17 exceptional therapists work under doctors’ orders, and are all over the hospital during their work day.  Their assignments take them from C-section deliveries to the nursery to the emergency room as well as serving patients in intensive care. They are also part of the emergency response team and the Code Blue team.

Many therapists have chosen the field because they have an early background of pulmonary needs they have seen in their family circle or in their children.

Lammey said that some 60 percent of all the patients in the hospital have respiratory or underlying respiratory problems therapists must address.

The Manteca respiratory therapy director said some 30 years ago he went into the U.S. Air Force where it was decided he should be a medic.  When he was stationed in Vietnam he was exposed to trauma and to a new field at that time – inhalation therapy.  

It was his introduction to that new field that set the stage for his career at Doctors Hospital of Manteca.

There is one memory of his four years in the Air Force as an Air Evac Medic that will remain with him all his life.  It was about a five-year-old boy who was suffering from leukemia, and he spent four months with her.

“I just remember the mom stroking his head and the dad holding his hand – I was his nurse,” he said.   Lammey spent much of his time in the Air Force at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

At Doctors Hospital it’s the testimonials, where patients laud their therapists and nurses for exceptional care, are very important to all of that us and much appreciated, he said.  

Doctors’ therapists have life support certifications in addition to their state licenses.  They are trained in basic life support, neonatal resuscitation for newborns, pediatric life support, and advanced cardiac life support.

Lammey plays a little golf when he has the time and has enjoyed some photography having had a darkroom in his home.
The American Association of Respiratory Care represents more than 30,000 health care providers involved in respiratory care nationwide.  The association recognized hospital that promote safety by adhering to a strict set of criteria.