I'm looking for a better EMR system designed specifically for a respiratory therapy department.

Yes. The important distinction is that you may not actually want another general-purpose EMR. You may want a respiratory-therapy clinical documentation/workflow layer that integrates with your hospital's existing EHR.

A few options are worth investigating:

• Respiratory-specific documentation platforms. There are products specifically built around RT workflows rather than adapting a nursing/physician chart. For example, Amber describes itself as a clinical documentation system built by respiratory therapists, although its current emphasis appears to be respiratory-therapy education/clinical programs, rather than a hospital RT department EMR.
• Respiratory/pulmonary EHR platforms. RioMed's Cellma, for example, has respiratory-specific workflows, dashboards, spirometry context, referrals, and multidisciplinary respiratory documentation.
• Ventilator/critical-care integration platforms. If your biggest problem is ventilator documentation and surveillance, Getinge's Talis platform is interesting because it can automatically send medical-device data into the EMR/PDMS and provide therapy-specific views and documentation.
• Custom RT workflow layered onto your existing EHR. This can actually be the strongest approach for a hospital department. Research on ventilator-management systems has demonstrated the value of discipline-specific RT documentation, standardized protocols, and dashboards that pull existing documentation into a real-time view.

What I would look for in an RT-specific system

If you're evaluating vendors, I'd make these must-have requirements:

The device integration piece is particularly important. A system that merely gives RTs another electronic form to fill out may actually make the department's problem worse. Modern respiratory platforms are increasingly moving toward automatic device data ingestion, structured respiratory assessments, protocol-driven workflows, and dashboards.

I can help you narrow this down

If this is for a hospital/health-system RT department, I can do a much more useful comparison than a generic "best EMR" list.

Tell me these 5 things:

1. Hospital size: e.g. 100 beds, 500 beds, multi-hospital system
2. Current EMR: Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, MEDITECH, other
3. What you dislike about the current RT documentation: too many clicks, poor workflow, missing ventilator data, bad reporting, etc.
4. Adult, pediatric, NICU, or all three
5. Whether you're looking for a replacement EMR or an RT-specific system that integrates with your existing EMR

Then I can research the current market and give you a shortlist of 5–10 actual vendors, with RT-specific capabilities, Epic/Cerner integration, device integration, pricing/implementation considerations, and which ones I'd put on an RFP/demo list.

I can help you narrow this down

If this is for a hospital/health-system RT department, I can do a much more useful comparison than a generic "best EMR" list.

Tell me these 5 things:

Finding an EMR system that truly understands the acute, serialized, and device-heavy workflow of a hospital or institutional respiratory therapy (RT) department can be frustrating. Most major enterprise EHRs (like Epic or Oracle Health ) handle RT as a generalized module rather than a native, streamlined clinical workflow.

Depending on whether you are looking for an acute-care hospital department add-on, a specialized rehab setting, or an outpatient pulmonology/respiratory clinic, options generally fall into a few distinct categories:

• Epic Systems (Epic) : While it is a massive enterprise system, Epic's dedicated Ventilator Management and Respiratory Therapy flowsheets can be heavily optimized. If configured right by your clinical informatics team, it allows rapid-entry charting for ventilator checks, ABG tracking, and aerosol treatments, though out-of-the-box setup can feel bloated. You can review their clinical scope via Epic Systems.
• WellSky Respiratory Software : Specifically designed for acute rehabilitation and specialized respiratory care settings. It focuses heavily on defensible documentation, rapid charge capture, managing complex ventilator/trach weaning protocols, and transferring data seamlessly across templates. Learn more at WellSky Acute Respiratory Software.
• ModuleMD Pulmonology : Ideal if your department or associated clinic leans heavily into outpatient pulmonary function testing (PFT), spirometry, and diagnostic workflows. It is designed with pre-built, customizable respiratory templates that minimize free-text typing. Check out ModuleMD Pulmonology EHR.
• OmniMD Pulmonology EHR : Offers robust integration for PFT/spirometry devices, asthma/COPD tracking, and remote patient monitoring (like home O2, CPAP compliance data, and oximetry feeds) that map directly into structured note fields rather than scanned PDFs. Explore features at OmniMD Pulmonology EHR.
• Cellma Pulmonology EHR (RioMed) : Built with structured clinical data entry tailored for respiratory specialists, reducing admin time with rapid-click charting and robust audit trails. More details are available on RioMed Cellma Respiratory.

To help narrow down the best fit, could you share:

• Is this for an acute care hospital/ICU , an outpatient clinic/PFT lab , or a long-term acute care/rehab facility?
• What is your current primary EHR/EMR (e.g., Epic, Cerner, Meditech), and are you looking for a standalone system or a tightly integrated departmental module?

Yes. The important distinction is that most hospital EMRs are not actually designed around respiratory therapy workflows. You may be better served by either:

1. a respiratory-specific clinical platform that integrates with your hospital EMR, or
2. a highly customized RT module/workflow inside Epic, Oracle Health, or MEDITECH.

I looked at the current market, and there are a few interesting directions.

Best options to investigate

MEDITECH is particularly interesting if you're already a MEDITECH shop: its current Expanse therapist workflow explicitly includes respiratory therapists, personalized chart navigation, mobile workflows, scheduling, documentation, and charge capture.

Net Health's ReDoc is also worth investigating, although it is oriented toward rehab therapy rather than exclusively respiratory care. It provides specialty documentation, compliance/billing safeguards, reporting, and integration with Epic, MEDITECH, and Cerner.

For a truly RT-centric system, I'd actually be interested in evaluating something that sits on top of your existing EMR rather than replacing it. Respiratory workflows have some very specific requirements that generic therapy software doesn't necessarily handle well—ventilator checks, oxygen delivery devices, respiratory treatments, ABGs, ventilator settings, protocols, RT assessments, rapid response documentation, respiratory-driven protocols, equipment tracking, and department workload management.

There are also systems demonstrating that respiratory-specific data can be integrated with major EHRs using HL7/FHIR. For example, ZEPHYRx supports HL7v2/FHIR integration with Epic, Cerner and MEDITECH for pulmonary-function data.

What I'd want an RT-specific EMR to do

If you're evaluating vendors, I'd make these must-have requirements rather than simply asking whether they "support respiratory therapy":

• RT assessment

• respiratory rate/work of breathing

• breath sounds

• oxygen requirements

• airway assessment

• secretion assessment

• respiratory scoring

• Ventilator documentation

• mode

• settings

• measured values

• alarms

• compliance/resistance

• ventilator checks

• NIV/CPAP/BiPAP

• HFNC

• Treatments

• nebulizers

• inhalers

• CPT/charge capture

• oxygen therapy

• airway clearance

• suctioning

• aerosol treatments

• specialty therapies

• ABG integration

• automatic results

• trending

• interpretation workflow

• ventilator settings alongside the ABG

• RT workflow

• automatic patient worklists

• treatment schedules

• prioritization by acuity

• assignment of patients to therapists

• handoff

• shift-to-shift continuity

• Protocols

• bronchodilator protocols

• oxygen weaning

• ventilator weaning

• spontaneous breathing trials

• secretion/airway protocols

• automatic protocol-driven recommendations

• Department management

• staffing

• workload

• productivity

• treatment completion

• missed treatments

• response times

• therapist assignments

• equipment utilization

• Interoperability

• Epic/Cerner/MEDITECH integration

• HL7/FHIR

• discrete data rather than PDFs whenever possible

• bidirectional data exchange

That last point is particularly important. I would not buy an "RT EMR" that merely creates a nicer documentation screen but leaves your data trapped in a separate database.

I can help you narrow this down

If you tell me what EMR your hospital currently uses (Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH, etc.), whether you're inpatient, outpatient, LTACH, ICU, or a mix, and roughly how many RTs you have, I can build you a much more useful shortlist.

I can also research the market specifically for hospital respiratory therapy departments and give you a side-by-side comparison of 5–10 vendors, pricing/implementation considerations, RT functionality, integrations, and major weaknesses, rather than generic EMR recommendations.

What I'd want an RT-specific EMR to do

There is no dominant standalone EMR built exclusively for hospital-based respiratory therapy departments; instead, hospitals rely on robust enterprise EHRs with specialized respiratory modules or dedicated pulmonology clinic platforms. While inpatient respiratory therapy charting (ventilator checks, ABGs, aerosol treatments) is typically integrated directly into large enterprise systems like Epic or Cerner (Oracle Health) , outpatient respiratory and pulmonology practices use specialized ambulatory software.

Watch this overview of custom platform flexibility for medical record management, which can help visualize adaptable clinical workflows:

1m 5 Best Electronic Health Records (EHR) Software 12K views  · 1 year ago YouTube · Business Solution

Top Enterprise and Specialty Options for Respiratory Care

Core Requirements to Look for in Respiratory Charting

• Device Integration: Automatic data capture from mechanical ventilators, pulse oximeters, and PFT (pulmonary function testing) machines to reduce manual entry errors.
• Custom Flowsheets: Rapid-entry flowsheets tailored for serial assessments (e.g., frequent post-bronchodilator checks, ventilator weaning parameters, and arterial blood gas tracking).
• Interoperability: Real-time visibility so that nursing, emergency, and critical care teams can view respiratory interventions instantly.

To help narrow down the right direction, could you clarify:

• Are you looking for an inpatient hospital department solution or an outpatient pulmonology clinic practice management system?
• What specific devices or equipment (such as specific ventilator brands or PFT machines) do you need the EMR to interface with?

Yes. The key is to distinguish between an EMR for pulmonology practices and a system that actually supports the day-to-day workflow of hospital respiratory therapists. Those are surprisingly different needs.

A lot of mainstream EHRs treat RT documentation as another nursing/clinical flowsheet. There are now platforms specifically targeting respiratory workflows, including oxygen therapy, ventilator management, respiratory assessments, PFTs, respiratory therapy notes, and operational tracking.

A few options worth investigating

• Pulmonology-Cloud — Pulmonology-focused EHR with respiratory therapy management templates, PFT documentation, chronic respiratory disease workflows, and support for RTs alongside physicians, nurses, and administrative staff.
• OmniMD — Pulmonology EHR with respiratory-specific templates and integrations for spirometry/PFTs, FeNO, walk tests, imaging, bronchoscopy, and ventilator data.
• ModuleMD — Established pulmonology-focused EHR with specialty documentation and spirometry integration/trending.
• HealthCall — Particularly interesting if your RT department manages chronic respiratory patients, home oxygen, NIV, RPM/RTM, or care-management programs. It supports respiratory-specific care programs, escalation protocols, oxygen/NIV workflows, and payer-compliance documentation.
• ZOLL Respiratory Knowledge Portal — Not an EMR replacement, but potentially useful alongside one if ventilator data, weaning protocols, and respiratory analytics are major requirements.

One important caveat: Amber is genuinely built specifically for respiratory therapists, but it's primarily a respiratory therapy education/clinical-training documentation system, not the kind of hospital RT EMR you would use for an inpatient department.

If you're talking about a hospital RT department

I'd actually approach this differently. Before choosing a vendor, I'd build the requirements around the RT's workflow:

• RT assignment/dispatch and workload management
• Respiratory assessment and reassessment
• Oxygen device and flow/FiO₂ documentation
• Ventilator settings and changes
• NIV/CPAP/BiPAP documentation
• ABGs and respiratory labs
• Nebulizers and respiratory medications
• Aerosol treatments
• High-flow nasal cannula
• Ventilator checks
• Weaning/SBT documentation
• Airway/tracheostomy management
• Intubation/extubation documentation
• Rapid-response/code documentation
• RT protocols and protocol-driven treatment
• Automatic time/date/user stamping
• Department workload dashboard
• Charges/billing capture
• Quality metrics
• Integration with the hospital's existing EHR
• Mobile/bedside charting
• Barcode/device integration
• Interoperability with ventilators and other respiratory equipment

The integration question is especially important. If you're already running Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH, etc., you probably don't want a completely independent EMR. You may want a respiratory-specific clinical application that integrates into the enterprise EHR, similar to how specialized therapy systems can sit alongside a hospital's primary EHR.

If you tell me (1) what hospital/EHR you're currently using, (2) roughly how many RTs you have, (3) inpatient vs. outpatient/home care, and (4) what you hate about your current system, I can research the market and give you a shortlist of 5–10 actual systems, with pricing where available, integrations, strengths/weaknesses, and which one I'd choose for your department.

Finding an EMR/EHR system that handles the specific, fast-paced workflows of a respiratory therapy (RT) department —such as ventilator management, arterial blood gases (ABGs), pulmonary function testing (PFT), and specialized respiratory flowsheets—can be challenging, as most major systems treat respiratory care as a minor submodule rather than a core focus.

Depending on whether you operate within an acute care hospital, a specialized rehab facility, or an outpatient pulmonology clinic, options generally fall into a few distinct categories:

Enterprise Systems with Robust RT Modules

If you are part of a larger hospital system or acute care network, standalone RT systems are rare; instead, you need major enterprise EHRs with deeply customizable, high-performing respiratory documentation and flowsheets:

• Epic Systems: Widely regarded by RT directors for its specialized respiratory flowsheets, ventilator integration capabilities, and seamless cross-departmental ordering. It allows heavy customization for specialized RT scoring (like rapid shallow breathing index, ventilator weaning protocols, and automated ABG integration).
• MEDITECH Expanse: Offers acute care and specialized respiratory documentation modules that tightly integrate clinical charting with department-specific workload tracking and respiratory-specific care plans.

Specialized & Acute Rehabilitation Software

If your department handles acute rehabilitation, long-term acute care (LTCAC), or specialized respiratory step-down units:

• WellSky: Provides targeted respiratory care and acute rehabilitation software designed explicitly to handle defensible documentation, complex therapy tracking, and streamlined charge capture for respiratory treatments and orders.

Outpatient Pulmonology & Diagnostic EMRs

If your focus leans heavily toward outpatient pulmonary clinics, diagnostic testing, and PFT management:

• ModuleMD: Offers specialized pulmonology workflows designed by practicing clinicians, featuring built-in customizable templates for pulmonary function testing (PFT) and diagnostic evaluations.
• AdvancedMD: Tailors its clinical decision support and patient-charting templates specifically around pulmonary and respiratory care management protocols.

To help narrow down the best fit, tell me:

• What setting is this for? (e.g., acute care hospital, long-term acute care, outpatient clinic)
• What is your biggest pain point with your current system? (e.g., ventilator charting, device integration, PFT reporting, billing/charge capture)

Yes. I searched specifically for systems that could give a respiratory therapy department a more RT-specific workflow, rather than simply adding another generic EMR.

The important distinction is that there don't appear to be many mainstream hospital EMRs built exclusively for respiratory therapy. The strongest options fall into three categories:

1. Respiro — the most interesting dedicated respiratory option

Medical Software Innovation's Respiro is probably the first system I'd investigate if your goal is genuinely "software designed around the respiratory department."

It is specifically designed for respiratory and sleep laboratory management, with workflow automation from referral through EMR distribution, HL7 integration, departmental workflow tracking, quality management, accreditation support, equipment QC, competency records, audits and reporting.

Caveat: it's primarily positioned in Australia/New Zealand, so you'd need to establish whether its U.S. interoperability, regulatory, support, and deployment model work for your organization.

2. MEDITECH Expanse — worth considering if you're in a hospital

MEDITECH has a Therapies solution that explicitly includes respiratory therapists alongside PT, OT and speech therapy. Its workflow can be customized by clinician and location.

More importantly for RT, MEDITECH's critical-care environment can pull information from mechanical ventilators and patient monitors into the electronic flowsheet, reducing manual transcription.

If you're already on MEDITECH, I'd investigate how far they can take RT-specific flowsheets, ventilator documentation, treatments, respiratory assessments, charge capture, protocols and department dashboards before considering a separate system.

3. Epic/Cerner + an RT-specific application

If you're a larger hospital using Epic or Oracle Health/Cerner, I wouldn't necessarily replace the enterprise EHR. I'd investigate whether you can put a specialized respiratory workflow/application on top of it.

There's actually published evidence of an institution creating an ECMO-specific EMR workflow in Epic, including protocol checklists, procedure notes and hourly circuit-parameter documentation.

That's an interesting model for RT: keep the longitudinal patient record in the enterprise EHR but give RT a department-specific workspace.

4. QuickEHR — more relevant if you're outpatient/pulmonary

QuickEHR is built around an OpenEMR foundation and specifically targets pulmonology/respiratory practices, including COPD, asthma, ILD, sleep and PFT workflows, with documentation, coding, authorization and RCM connected around the respiratory chart.

I'd put this much higher on the list for a pulmonary clinic than for an inpatient hospital RT department.

What I would not prioritize

Products such as WebPT, Clinicient and Net Health/ReDoc are genuinely therapy-specific, but they're primarily designed around PT/OT/SLP and rehabilitation, not acute-care respiratory therapy. For example, ReDoc explicitly describes itself as a hospital outpatient rehab EMR, while Clinicient focuses on PT/OT/SLP.

So I wouldn't choose one simply because it says "therapy EMR."

---

The bigger question

If you tell me a little about your department, I can narrow this down substantially.

Specifically, are you looking for:

1. Inpatient hospital RT — ventilators, oxygen, treatments, ABGs, assessments, protocols, charges, etc.
2. Outpatient respiratory/pulmonary clinic
3. Sleep lab
4. Home respiratory/DME
5. A combination of these

And, importantly, what EMR are you currently using (Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, MEDITECH, something else)?

If this is an inpatient RT department, I can do a deeper market search for actual RT-specific systems and add-on applications, then compare them on ventilator integration, RT flowsheets, treatment documentation, charge capture, scheduling, staffing/workload management, mobile/bedside charting, HL7/FHIR integration, and U.S. availability.

Finding an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or clinical documentation system optimized for a specialized department like respiratory therapy can be tough, especially since most enterprise EMRs (like Epic or Cerner/Oracle Health) treat respiratory care as a generic flowsheets module rather than a tailored workflow.

Depending on whether you are looking for dedicated standalone respiratory data management, a specialized diagnostic/cardiopulmonary suite, or advanced device-integrated charting, here is a breakdown of how departments typically approach this:

• Enterprise EMR Customization (Epic/Cerner): Rather than replacing a main EMR, many large hospital respiratory departments work with system informaticists to build custom, specialized "Respiratory Care Wafers/Flowsheets." This allows rapid entry for ventilator checks, ABG results, and bronchodilator therapy tracking while keeping data centralized.
• Dedicated Cardiopulmonary & Diagnostics Software: For pulmonary function testing (PFT) and diagnostics, systems like Vitalograph Spirotrac Software or Medtronic Data Flow Management Software integrate tightly with testing hardware and interface back to core EMRs via HL7/FHIR protocols.[1]
• Cloud-Based Remote Management (ResMed AirView): If your focus leans heavily toward homecare, sleep, and non-invasive ventilation compliance tracking, platforms like ResMed AirView Platform offer dedicated ventilator and PAP compliance monitoring.[1]

To help narrow down the best path or software vendor for your specific environment, could you share:

• Are you looking for an acute care hospital/ICU setting (ventilator management, arterial blood gases, rounds) or an outpatient pulmonary/diagnostics clinic?
• Do you need this system to integrate with an existing core EMR (like Epic), or are you looking for a standalone solution?

While standalone, exclusive EMR systems built only for hospital respiratory therapy (RT) departments are rare—because RT documentation is almost always integrated into enterprise systems like Epic or Oracle Health (Cerner)—there are specialized pulmonary EMR modules and enterprise configurations optimized for respiratory workflows.

Top choices and specialized platforms featuring robust respiratory therapy and pulmonary function testing (PFT) integration include:

• Epic Systems (Respiratory Care Module): Widely considered the gold standard for hospital-wide acute care, featuring specialized flowsheet documentation for ventilator management, ABGs (arterial blood gases), aerosol treatments, and real-time device integration.
• Oracle Health (Cerner): Offers comprehensive respiratory documentation workflows, critical care device connectivity, and specialized pulmonary management toolkits for inpatient and outpatient settings.
• Pulmonology-Cloud: A specialized specialty EHR designed around respiratory care workflows, PFT integration, chronic disease tracking (COPD, asthma), and diagnostic tracking.
• eClinicalWorks: A flexible ambulatory and hospital-adjacent EHR that supports structured data templates for pulmonary practices, spirometry integration, and respiratory disease tracking.

To help narrow down the best fit, could you tell me:

• Is your respiratory department inpatient/acute care or an outpatient pulmonary clinic?
• Are you looking to integrate with specific bedside equipment (like mechanical ventilators or PFT machines)?
• What is your current core hospital EMR?

Yes. The important distinction is that you probably don’t want a generic EMR that happens to have an RT flowsheet. You want either an RT-specific clinical documentation platform or an RT management layer that integrates tightly with your hospital’s existing EHR.

From what I found, there are several different categories worth considering:

1. RT-specific documentation / workflow platforms

• Clinware — Its respiratory module specifically addresses ventilator/tracheostomy patients, HFOT, CPAP/BiPAP, and respiratory-related clinical documentation. This looks particularly interesting if you're working in a hospital or post-acute setting with a significant ventilator population.
• HealthCall — More of a comprehensive respiratory-care management platform, including oxygen/NIV, respiratory protocols, remote monitoring, care programs, and documentation. It appears particularly oriented toward complex/home respiratory care rather than simply replacing an inpatient RT flowsheet.
• Ventec Life Systems VOCSN Multi-View — Very interesting if your department manages a lot of ventilator-dependent patients. It aggregates ventilation, oxygen, cough-assist, suction and nebulization data and can integrate reports with an EHR.

2. Keep your existing hospital EHR, but dramatically improve the RT workflow

This may actually be the best route for a hospital RT department.

For example, ZOLL Medical has its Respiratory Knowledge Portal, which provides ventilator data, weaning dashboards, SAT/SBT information, protocol compliance and EMR integration.

Similarly, Getinge Talis can pull medical-device data into the EMR and provide therapy-specific dashboards, mobile documentation, and patient identification for initiation/weaning of mechanical ventilation.

This approach can give RTs a much more RT-centric workspace without forcing the entire hospital to replace its EHR.

What I would look for in an RT EMR

If you're evaluating systems, I'd make these non-negotiable:

• RT-specific flowsheets, rather than generic nursing documentation
• Ventilator settings automatically populated from the ventilator
• Oxygen/device documentation
• HFNC, CPAP, BiPAP and NIV workflows
• ABG/VBG integration
• Respiratory assessment with customizable fields
• Aerosol/medication treatment documentation
• Vent checks and safety checks
• Tracheostomy documentation
• Airway/ETT documentation
• SBT/SAT and weaning workflows
• RT protocols and protocol-driven therapy changes
• Respiratory treatment scheduling
• RT task/work queues
• Department-wide RT patient list/status board
• Ability to see all RT patients at a glance
• Mobile/bedside charting
• Automatic time stamps
• Ventilator/device integration
• Audit trail
• Quality metrics and RT productivity reporting
• Strong HL7/FHIR/API interoperability with your existing EHR

The patient list/status board is especially important. A good RT system shouldn't make a therapist open 20 individual patient charts just to figure out who needs a treatment, who is ventilated, who is on HFNC, who needs an SBT, etc. Older respiratory-care dashboard implementations demonstrate how aggregating ventilated patients and relevant data into a dedicated dashboard can substantially change the workflow.

One thing I'd clarify before recommending a specific product

When you say "respiratory therapy department," are you talking about:

1. An inpatient hospital RT department — ICU, med/surg, ED, NICU/PICU, etc.
2. A long-term acute care (LTAC)/SNF respiratory department
3. A pulmonary/respiratory outpatient practice
4. Home respiratory/DME
5. A respiratory therapy school/clinical education program

If you're talking about #1, an inpatient hospital RT department, I can narrow this down considerably. I can also compare the leading options against Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, Meditech, etc., including what RTs actually gain/lose with each approach and which vendors appear capable of replacing a conventional RT flowsheet versus simply supplementing the hospital EMR.