NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter Receives Enhanced Respiratory Care Accreditation for Its Ventilator Weaning Program
Carter is the first nursing home in New York City and the first long-term acute care hospital in the country to receive this recognition Carter's specialty hospital has a 72% success rate in weaning patients from a ventilator, surpassing the industry standard of 50%
Oct 21, 2024
NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter today announced it received the enhanced respiratory care accreditation from the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety for its ventilator weaning program. Carter is the first nursing home in New York City and the first long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) in the country to receive this recognition. Carter’s specialty hospital has a 72% success rate in weaning patients from a ventilator, surpassing the industry standard of 50%. Since April 2023, Carter’s 14-bed ventilator weaning program identified 194 patients who qualified for ventilator weaning and 140 of them were successfully weaned.
“We strive to deliver the highest quality of both medical and rehabilitative care. As the only LTACH in New York City, we cannot ask less of ourselves. Weaning patients off medical support to enjoy their lives optimally has long been a priority: our facilities include a 14-bed weaning unit, and our Medical Ventilation weaning program boasts a 72% success rate, exceeding both regional and national benchmarks,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter Chief Executive Officer Floyd R. Long, LNHA, MBA. “We are proud and honored to have received this accreditation from the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS). This recognition confirms the outstanding weaning program offered at Carter LTACH and validates the patient centered approach to respiratory management. We look forward to working with PPAHS to ensure that our patients continue to receive the best quality of care and overall a better quality of life.
“When families send their loved ones and friends to a healthcare facility, they want to make sure that they are receiving the best care possible. For communities in New York State, Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital is such a facility,” said Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Executive Director Michael Wong, JD.
Until recently, there was no unified standard for service quality in Mechanical Ventilation (MV) facilities. This lack of standardization sometimes resulted in a lower quality of life for patients and their families, with problems including lung injuries, hypotension, and dependency on MV. Consequently, the facilities experienced inefficient resource use and increased liability insurance rates.
Enhanced Respiratory Care, endorsed by the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), is the first and only standard in the field. This evidence-based approach includes advancements in weaning, patient care, and ventilator unit technology. It benefits everyone involved: patients and their families.
“For more than 10 years, since opening the doors to the Henry J. Carter Hospital, the Respiratory Therapy Department has worked ongoing and diligently, along with the help of many other departments at Carter, to continuously improve on its overall respiratory care that it delivers to its patients and residents,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter Medical Director of Respiratory Therapy & LTACH Director of Pulmonology William Dinan MD, FCCP. “In addition, the Respiratory Therapy Department has been an important contributor in creating and building the Standard-of-Excellence Weaning Program that we have at Henry J. Carter Hospital, designed to help chronic ventilator patients wean off their long-term ventilators.”
“At Carter, we have a unique weaning program that allows our most complex patients with multiple comorbidities to be liberated from the ventilator. Through Team work, accountability and effective data management, we have achieved a level of excellence that has put us in a position to be recognized and accredited by the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety (PPAHS). Our aim is to continue to provide excellent service to our community and to improve the quality of life of our patients and residents,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter Director of Respiratory Therapy Juliet Esan.
“Our pulmonary team are experts in weaning patients off ventilators. A patient’s body image suffers when they’re on a ventilator, so we focus on freeing them from those medical devices and restoring a feeling of being whole again,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter Chief Medical Officer Michael Schuster, MD. “Patients that can’t be liberated from a ventilator are eligible to move into our skilled nursing environment, equipped with a 32-bed advanced ventilator unit that allows us to continue to treat patients with breathing challenges.”
###
MEDIA CONTACT: Rafael Dominguez, 646-694-4910
#170-24
About NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter
The Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility at 1752 Park Avenue and 122nd Street in Manhattan features 365 beds for two distinct types of healthcare services: long-term acute care and skilled nursing care. Carter’s 201-bed Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) is the only one in New York City and serves medically complex patients, many of whom require ventilator support. Carter’s 164-bed Skilled Nursing Facility serves residents whose medical needs require management and care that cannot be provided at home. The facility features technologically advanced support equipment and highly qualified on-site staff that are available 24/7. Carter is ranked #5 in Newsweek’s Best Nursing Homes in New York 2025 and received high-performance ratings in short-term rehabilitation from U.S. News and World Report’s Best Nursing Homes 2024. To learn more about NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter or to schedule an appointment/tour, please call (646) 686-0000 or visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/carter.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
About Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety
Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety is ranked internationally as a top-100 patient safety organization (Agilience Authority Index) and is a national advocacy force for addressing patient health and safety priorities shared by patients, physicians, regulators, and industry. PPAHS seeks to ensure that the best medications, medical inventions, and technology that can improve care and reduce costs are employed. PPAHS works to advance patient health and safety by developing and highlighting best practices and recommendations through better use and application of clinical practices and experiences, information technologies and checklists, and healthcare information. As a voice in support of ideas and innovation that can improve care, we encourage a health ecosystem that fosters a culture of patient safety. For more about PPAHS, please visit www.ppahs.org. For more on the Enhanced Respiratory Care Accreditation, please visit https://ppahs.org/accreditation-of-facilities. To apply for Accreditation, please go to https://ppahs.org/apply-for-accreditation.