Pulmonary care

We provide therapeutic services to help you improve your lung health. These services include:

• Operating and maintaining equipment to administer oxygen or assist with breathing
• Employing mechanical ventilation (for those who can't breathe adequately on their own)
• Administering medication in aerosol form to treat breathing problems and help prevent respiratory infections

We have a Pulmonary Function Laboratory where you can receive diagnostic testing to assess your lung function. Additionally, we can test blood samples to evaluate your relationship between breathing and cellular respiration.

Our pulmonary care team performs bronchial thermoplasty (BT) to help manage and treat severe asthma in adults. BT is a safe, simple, minimally invasive outpatient procedure that we perform while you are under anesthesia.

BT uses radiofrequency energy (a form of electromagnetic energy) to thin and open muscular airway walls. We start by inserting a small, flexible tube called a bronchoscope through the nose or mouth. We then guide a catheter with a heat probe through the bronchoscope. The probe delivers thermal energy, which heats and thins the smooth airway muscle and opens the airways without damaging them.

The airway muscle tends to overreact to asthma triggers. When this muscle contracts, it decreases the airway’s diameter, making it difficult to breathe.

People who are 18 years old or older with severe asthma typically qualify for BT. If your severe asthma symptoms haven't improved even though you’ve been using inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonists, BT might be the solution for you.

BT is useful for many people in helping reduce asthma attacks, ER visits and hospitalizations for respiratory symptoms. Talk to your doctor about how effective this treatment may be for you.

Our low-dose CT screening and nodule program is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary platform focused on early-stage cancer detection. Our primary goal is to provide patients at-risk for developing lung cancer with evidence-based screenings and care management.

Our team of lung nodule coordinators is dedicated to ensuring you receive effective, efficient and compassionate care, as well as continued long-term support.

To qualify for a lung cancer screening in our program, you must meet the following qualifications:

• Be 55 to 80 years old
• Be a current smoker with at least a 30 pack-year history (a pack-year is calculated as the number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day multiplied by the number of years you have smoked) or be a former smoker who has quit within the past 15 years but has a 30 pack-year history
• Have no current signs or symptoms of lung cancer
• Have had a shared decision-making meeting with your primary care physician

To learn more about your cancer screening options, please call our lung cancer navigator at (772) 468-1217.

We use innovative technologies to detect suspicious lung nodules by analyzing CT exams for the presence of incidental lung nodules which could be cancerous. This service is provided for patients who come to our emergency room (ER), as well for those who are receiving care on an inpatient or outpatient basis.

We provide seamless lung nodule coordination that includes:

• Continuity of care and ongoing treatment by a lung cancer navigator
• Detailed discussion of the benefits and risks of clinically appropriate evaluation
• Individualized care and treatment recommendations from our radiology and pulmonary team
• Personalized lung cancer risk evaluation and clinical assessment