Lung & Respiratory Care

With state-of-the-art equipment and a highly trained and experienced staff, we provide respiratory care services to adults and pediatric patients on an inpatient, emergency or outpatient basis with physician referral. Our respiratory services cover a wide range of needs:

• Airway management
• Arterial blood gas sampling and analysis
• Bronchopulmonary hygiene
• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
• Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)
• Delivery of aerosolized medications
• Home care discharge planning and education
• Oxygen and specialty medical gas administration
• Patient consultation
• Pulmonary rehabilitation

We offer the latest in diagnostic respiratory services:

• Arterial blood gas sampling and analysis
• Pulmonary function testing
• Rest and exercise oximetry testing
• Sleep studies

This is a painless and non-invasive test that can provide early detection of a breathing problem. These tests can tell your doctor:

• What quantity of air you breathe with each breath intake
• How efficiently you move air in and out of your lungs
• How well your lungs deliver oxygen to your bloodstream

Using this information, your doctor can recommend the best treatment that can prevent disease from progressing.

Thoracic diseases are those that affect the organs in the chest, including the lungs, esophagus and heart. Our experts in the Thoracic Clinic at the Anna Jaques Cancer Center specialize in diagnosing and treating conditions that affect breathing.

Our Thoracic Clinic is affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. Through this partnership, we can deliver the advanced care you’d expect from a major Boston medical center, with a convenient, personalized approach right here in your community – the best of both worlds. 

Together, we offer a full array of community-based health services in Newburyport and, when needed, advanced treatment options and specialists at BIDMC. Our program offers a committed team that works together to diagnose and direct the treatment of lung and esophageal diseases — all within the comfort of the Anna Jaques campus.

We provide community-based care for these and many other thoracic conditions:

• COPD
• Emphysema
• Lung cancer

In addition, we care for those with symptoms such as heartburn, acid reflux or difficulty swallowing. These are often the result of esophageal disease. We treat both cancerous and non-cancerous conditions of the esophagus.

We offer these and other thoracic services:

• Advanced care for complex airway diseases
• COPD treatment
• Emphysema treatment
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) treatment
• Screening, diagnosis and staging for cancers of the lung and esophagus

You are eligible for low dose computed tomography (LDCT) once per year, if you meet these conditions:

• You are between 50 and 80 years old.
• You don’t have signs or symptoms of lung cancer (asymptomatic).
• You are either a current smoker or have quit smoking within the last 15 years.
• You have a tobacco smoking history of at least 20 “pack years” (smoking an average of one pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years).
• You get a written order from your doctor.

Not necessarily. In fact, up to 25% of patients who smoked at least 30 “pack years” have lung nodule on CT of the chest, and only a minority of those patients eventually have lung cancer.  The key is to follow up on the lung nodule.

When you quit smoking, the inflammation in the airways goes down. The little hair-like projections in the airways that we call cilia — which are paralyzed by smoke — begin to work again. So, the lungs will get better in weeks to months. Your breathing will get better. Your ability to exercise will improve.

Paradoxically, people find that they cough a little right after they stop smoking, but that's natural. That's the lungs cleaning themselves out. If you've been smoking a long time and have developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the lungs never totally heal.

Chronic bronchitis is inflammation of the airway. Some of that inflammation can be reversed. But if the inflammation has led to scarring on the walls of the airway, some of that inflammation cannot be reversed.