Lack of skilled ventilator operators

Although this story deals mainly with the problem in NY state, the lack of skilled ventilator operators throughout the country is not getting enough attention

The City -Hospitals around New York and the nation are scrambling to get their hands on as many ventilators as possible to treat a rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 patients.

But even if New York got the 30,000 ventilators it might need to combat an onslaught of seriously ill patients, the state could be caught with too few respiratory therapists, who manage the machines that move air in and out of patients’ lungs.

Roughly 7,500 New Yorkers are licensed to work as respiratory therapists and respiratory therapist technicians, according to the state Department of Education.

That leaves New York with more limited access to ventilator personnel than all but one other state in the U.S., as a share of population, with just 38 therapists and technicians per 100,000 people, according to THE CITY’s analysis of the American Association for Respiratory Care data.

Only Minnesota has fewer. For New York City, the figure is even lower, at 32 professionals per 100,000 people.

“Overall, we just don’t have enough therapists,” said Claire Aloan, an associate professor and program director of the Department of Respiratory Therapy Education at SUNY Upstate Medical Universi