Evolving Home Respiratory Care

For years, nebulizers and supplemental oxygen have been the standard treatment in home respiratory care. Recently, home medical equipment (HME) providers have pursued additional devices to support an aging population with chronic lung diseases, and home respiratory treatment has evolved into a more complex level of care. Our patient base continues to get older and respiratory disease worsens. Hospitals are sending higher-acuity patients home while trying to avoid readmission penalties, equipment for the home is advancing and payers continue to establish and tighten documentation requirements.

For those working in homecare, having a solid understanding of how the respiratory world fits together can make a dramatic difference in how we support patients and other health care professionals.

The Different Types of Respiratory Care

At its core, respiratory care in the home is about helping people who cannot oxygenate or ventilate well without outside assistance.

There are two categories of home ventilation:

• Invasive ventilation, which uses tubes inserted into the trachea to push air directly to the lungs
• Non-invasive ventilators (NIV), which connect to masks

Invasive ventilators sit at the highest level of home respiratory care. These patients may require life-support ventilation, tracheostomy care, advanced alarms and dependable backup power. These cases demand more frequent communication, documentation and interdisciplinary coordination. Nurses, caregivers, respiratory therapists (RTs) and the HME provider all play a role in keeping the patient stable at home.

Respiratory assist devices (RADs) and NIV have undergone the most changes in recent years, and there is growing recognition that this therapy can be life-changing for patients, prevent hospital readmissions and therefore reduce overall health care spend for these patients.

Conditions Supported by Home Ventilation

Chronic lung disease conditions that are supported at home include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS), neuromuscular diseases, scoliosis, restrictive chest wall disorders and sleep-disordered breathing. Some conditions block airflow and weaken the breathing muscles, and others physically limit the ability of the lungs to expand.

While HME providers aren’t responsible for diagnosing these conditions, knowing the basics of the disease process helps us understand why certain therapies are ordered, how they benefit patients and what challenges a patient might face while they adapt to treatment.

The Respiratory System

Our respiratory system consists of two main parts: the upper airway (nose, mouth and throat) and the lower airway (lungs via the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles). It’s how our body receives oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide. A breath cycle starts with inhaling air at the nostrils or mouth, which our body warms and filters for dust or germs by little hairlike particles lining the airway called cilia, then continues down the pharynx and larynx. From there, it splits into two bronchi—one per lung—and keeps branching into smaller tubes like a tree. Those tiny bronchioles end in alveoli, the grape-like clusters where oxygen enters our blood. Oxygen is then carried throughout the body, dropped off at the organs and cells and used as energy.

For patients who are experiencing hypoxemia (low oxygen levels in the blood), tried-and-true nebulizer and oxygen therapy continue to be the foundation of respiratory equipment in the home. By opening the airways for better flow and increasing the percentage of oxygen in the air that is inhaled, we can treat and successfully manage chronic lung diseases with these therapies. But as these disease states worsen, we need to provide higher-level devices.

RAD vs. NIV

When a person exhales, carbon dioxide (the waste product of oxygen being burned as energy) is brought back through the bloodstream to the lungs to be expelled. When a person’s oxygen levels start to fall, their carbon dioxide levels start to rise. Once carbon dioxide levels rise, there is less room for oxygen.

To correct the high levels of carbon dioxide, we need to either take deeper breaths or breathe more times per minute. Once respiratory strain like this becomes a chronic condition, consideration can be given to treatment with either RAD or NIV devices to support the patient’s respiratory efforts.

A RAD can deliver tidal volumes and help control carbon dioxide levels. It can typically accommodate the needs of moderate patients. More severe patients, however, may require features like battery backup, automatic expiratory positive airway pressure to prevent the airway from collapsing during exhalation, high-flow therapy or mouthpiece ventilation. Those features can only be provided with a home ventilator.

NIV has grown into one of the most important tools for managing chronic respiratory failure at home. Unlike CPAP or regular bilevel therapy, which mainly treat obstructive sleep apnea, NIV is used when the patient isn’t ventilating well enough on their own. These patients retain carbon dioxide, which leads to headaches, daytime fatigue, morning confusion and long-term decline if left untreated. NIV helps with ventilation by providing higher inspiratory pressures, backup respiratory rates and algorithms designed to stabilize minute ventilation. For many patients, it’s the therapy that profoundly changes how they feel and function day to day.

What Is Needed for Successful Outcomes

Providing quality respiratory therapy goes beyond basic equipment delivery. Clinicians performing in-home setups need to be great teachers. Detailed education and involvement at and after setup is critical. HME providers are responsible for making sure their staff are well trained and can provide that thorough education.

Clear protocols and competency programs are essential for safe setups and proper routine patient follow-up. Clinicians need to have patience when dealing with individuals who may not be performing at their best due to higher levels of CO2 retention, causing memory issues.

For successful outcomes, working with RAD and NIV patients requires HME providers to provide more attention and service compared to standard CPAP or BiLevel therapy setups.

A large part of the setup visit is helping the patient understand what the equipment is doing to help them and reassuring them that the first few nights may be challenging in getting used to the new machine. Cleaning routines, recognizing mask leaks or fit issues, understanding alarms and knowing what “normal” feels like are all things that should be discussed with the patient and caregiver.

Ventilator Make & Model

There are various manufacturers and models of home ventilators. They all have similar modes of therapy, but there are key differences across the manufacturer’s platforms. Battery life, size of unit, portability and wheelchair connectivity are all typical things to be considered. Additional features can make a key difference in a patient’s comfort level with the device. Mouthpiece ventilation and high flow nasal therapy have contributed to the advances with these devices. Manufacturers each have their own niche programming and technology that works with the patient to provide improved breath synchronization and minimizes auto-triggering to create a more comfortable breath pattern.

Once the machine has been selected and placed with a patient, follow-up is also extremely important. Every patient is different, and the managing clinician needs to collaborate with the patient, using the technology available to create and customize settings that are both therapeutic and tolerable. It can be a challenge to find that perfect balance for the patient.

Choosing accessories and ensuring things like proper mask fit can be almost as important as choosing the right machine. Mask fitting has come a long way from the times of plastic templates, with artificial intelligence (AI) programs taking much of the guesswork out of finding the proper fit. These programs have been proven to improve the patients’ feelings of satisfaction with their masks, from overall comfort to trusting the science behind it.

Recent Changes

Noninvasive ventilation has seen significant changes in recent years. The reimbursement environment has pushed home medical equipment providers to sharpen their processes and provide not just initial usage documentation (as is done with CPAP therapy) but also ongoing monitoring and data capture. Most payers require detailed information from the prescriber. Building strong relationships with ordering practitioners is as important as understanding the equipment itself.

The release of the Medicare national coverage determination rules for respiratory failure COPD patients needing NIV has increased the challenges for HME providers. Usage monitoring for reimbursement is new for this type of equipment. Remote monitoring is key to ensuring patients are using their equipment.

HME teams must build reliable workflows, including:

• Download and review usage data
• Focument patient benefit,
• Coordinate follow-up evaluations with the prescriber
• Maintain careful records of every compliance check.

Without this, claims may be denied—which could jeopardize patient access and the longevity of the therapy program.
Even with the challenges, it is an exciting time in home respiratory care, and it remains one of the most rewarding professions. Many patients begin RAD or NIV therapy feeling overwhelmed or scared. Seeing their symptoms improve—clearer mornings, fewer hospital trips, better sleep and more energy—reminds us why the work matters. HME providers play a direct role in giving patients an improved quality of life.