When Daryl Weber, the manager of Respiratory Care Services at Saddleback Memorial, reached out to Orange Coast College's Respiratory Care program director Alison Riggio to ask if she would consider loaning the College's ventilators to the hospital to prepare for an influx of COVID-19 patients, the timing could not have been better.
OCC had just announced that all in-person classes were suspended until March 30, and that a transition to online for most classes was probable after that. The ventilators in OCC's Respiratory Care program would likely sit un-used for months.
“The timing worked out, as weird as that sounds because with the campus shut down the ventilators aren’t being used and the primary course for incorporating these machines is [not scheduled until] the fall,” explains Riggio.
OCC ended up loaning Saddleback Memorial three of its newest ventilators, and when, a week later, the College received word that Governor Gavin Newsom was requesting all available ventilators be donated to a central state repository, then-Vice President of Instruction Kevin Ballinger personally delivered OCC’s 13 remaining machines to the repository at Santa Monica City College.
OCC's Allied Health administrators agreed that it would be a tremendous opportunity to be able to give back to the College's supportive hospital community, many of which serve as clinical sites for Coast students earning their certificates and licenses to practice as both frontline health care providers and diagnostic specialists. In fact, Weber sits on OCC's Respiratory Care Advisory Committee, and worked with Riggio at Hoag Hospital for many years.
"We were pleased to lend our support to Saddleback Memorial and other local California hospitals, whose healthcare professionals have worked tirelessly to save lives during this pandemic," says OCC President Angelica Suarez. "More importantly, we at OCC recognize that we must all do our part to keep our communities safe and well during this time.”
OCC's Respiratory Care program is a two-year program that prepares students with the knowledge, skills and behaviors of respiratory care practice as performed by a Registered Respiratory Therapist. Students who complete the program are the healthcare professionals that evaluate, treat, and manage patients of all ages with respiratory illnesses and other cardiopulmonary disorders. One of the main responsibilities of OCC's respiratory care graduates in the care of the critically ill patient is management of the ventilator (breathing machine).