# University of Pennsylvania Health System's year-long donor-care ICU program had respiratory therapists manage ventilators and monitoring remotely, saving an estimated 2.2 FTEs

Page: https://flyvolo.ai/en/changes/ev-20260604-respiratory-therapist-6
Date: 2026-06-04 · Stage: Labour impact
Can this record move a task judgement? yes
Occupation: https://flyvolo.ai/en/careers/respiratory-therapist

## Scope

A prospective observational study (October 2023 to October 2024) by the University of Pennsylvania Health System's Center for Connected Care (PENN E-LERT) and the Gift of Life Donor Program, published in Critical Care Medicine (2026-06-04), of an eight-bed brain-dead donor-care ICU where all respiratory therapy care, including full ventilator management, was delivered remotely via a telecritical-care platform with real-time audiovisual monitoring and a remote ventilator interface, with in-person respiratory therapists called in only when needed. Across 182 organ donors, the program logged 3,872 remote respiratory procedures and 1,782 hours of remote care; in-person respiratory therapists were needed for only 119 hours (6.1%), mostly for transport and advanced airway work, and the health system estimated this avoided 2.2 full-time-equivalent respiratory therapist positions and $306,952 in labor costs. This is one health system's own account of one specialised ICU that manages brain-dead organ donors, not general hospital patients, over one year, with no control group; the FTE-savings estimate is the health system's own calculation, not an independently audited figure. The 6.1% of hours still done in person is evidence that hands-on airway work and transport keep needing a respiratory therapist physically present.

## Source

- University of Pennsylvania Health System / Gift of Life Donor Program — Critical Care Medicine — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42240434/ (primary source)

## What this means

This health system ran a remote respiratory-therapy service for a full year and measured a real staffing effect: an estimated 2.2 fewer full-time respiratory therapist positions needed at the bedside, with therapists instead managing ventilators and watching monitors from off-site.

## What it does not show yet

It does not establish how respiratory therapists' numbers or hours are changing in an ordinary hospital ICU — this is one specialised ICU that manages brain-dead organ donors, at one health system, with no comparison group, and the FTE-savings figure is the health system's own estimate.

## How to verify it yourself

Ask your respiratory therapy department whether it runs, or is piloting, a tele-critical-care service for any of its ICUs, and what share of ventilator-management hours are handled remotely versus at the bedside.


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