Expert Clinical Staff

Paul A. Selecky, MD, FACP, FCCP, FAARC

Dr. Selecky is medical director of Hoag Pulmonary Department and also the Chair of Hoag Healthcare Ethics Committee. He is a clinical professor of Medicine at UCLA and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases. He is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Selecky received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and he did his post-graduate training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.

About Hoag Respiratory Therapists

Hoag respiratory therapists assist patients with a multitude of breathing problems and strive to help patients maintain good lung health. Respiratory therapists also provide care to help people manage breathing problems caused by disease, accident or illness.

In the Unites States, there are over 130,000 respiratory therapists who evaluate, treat, educate and monitor patients with all kinds of breathing disorders. They even help prevent chronic lung disease by counseling those people who smoke to quit and by teaching people how to manage their respiratory conditions.

Hoag Respiratory Therapists delivering hands-on care throughout the hospital:

• Giving breathing treatments to people with asthma and other respiratory conditions.
• Managing ventilators that keep the critically ill alive in the intensive care units.
• Delivering life-saving intervention in the Emergency room.
• Treating children with conditions ranging from premature birth in the neonatal intensive care unit, to asthma conditions.
• Helping people breathe easier and get more out of life in the pulmonary rehabilitation programs.
• Conducting pulmonary function tests and providing patient education.
• Helping patients learn how to better manage asthma on their own in Asthma education programs.
• Assisting patients who want to kick their smoking habit for good in the smoking cessation program.
• Help devise long-term care plans for patients in Hoag Case Management.

Respiratory therapists are educated and tested for competency

A respiratory therapist is a licensed, specially trained and highly skilled professional working under the direction of a physician.

Many respiratory therapists begin with an associate degree at a community college, while others enroll in a four-year bachelors degree program at a college or university. Both degrees will qualify them to become licensed to practice and allow them to earn the profession’s advanced level credential, the “Registered Respiratory Therapist,” or “RRT.”

Many respiratory therapists seek additional skills and credentials in pulmonary function testing, neonatal-pediatric care, sleep medicine, asthma education and other areas of specialization.

Expect excellent care from your respiratory therapist

Hoag respiratory therapists may measure a patient’s lung capacity and collect lung samples to determine their lung health and what possible treatments they may need.

If a patient is diagnosed with a respiratory problem, they may begin a treatment specifically designed to meet their individual respiratory therapy needs. This treatment might include use of inhaled medications, teaching of breathing techniques, administration of oxygen, and use of other devices that maintain healthy lungs. It may also include a plan to help the patient manage their respiratory condition more effectively.