For respiratory therapy departments, WellSky is the most persistent recommendation for those in acute rehabilitation or hospital settings due to its specialized ventilator data integration and customizable respiratory templates. For specialty pulmonology practices, ModuleMD and Cellma are frequently cited for their dedicated respiratory workflows and diagnostic device integration, while Epic remains the top choice for large-scale health systems requiring extensive interoperability.
Brands AI recommends here
Mentioned in
1
Epic
59%
2WellSkyRecommended for its strong focus on acute rehabilitation and hospital departments. It provides specialized templates and ventilator data integration, making it a reliable choice for inpatient respiratory care management.52%
3ModuleMDBest for clinical practices requiring all-in-one pulmonology solutions. It is designed to handle specialized respiratory workflows, including pulmonary function testing and billing, directly within documentation.51%
If you mean a hospital-based respiratory therapy department, there are some important distinctions: there are relatively few true “RT EMRs.” Most hospitals use a large enterprise EHR and either configure a strong RT-specific module/flowsheet or add a specialized respiratory platform.
PFT, sleep, pulmonary diagnostics and respiratory services
HealthCall
Respiratory care-management workflows
More focused on care management than bedside ventilators
Integration-oriented
Oxygen, NIV, chronic/home respiratory programs
MEDITECH specifically advertises therapist workflows for physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapists, including therapist-specific documentation and chart views.
Epic is particularly interesting if you already have Epic because its architecture supports structured flowsheets, incoming device data, HL7 interfaces, and FHIR-based data exchange. Epic's documentation explicitly describes filing device-derived data into flowsheets, and its current API documentation includes oxygen-related observations such as oxygen flow rate and concentration.
For a department where ventilator data capture is the major pain point, I'd look especially closely at DocBox and zMed. DocBox describes continuous integration of ventilators, monitors, infusion pumps and other bedside devices into a unified patient record, while zMed describes automatically populated flowsheets with ventilation data and waveforms.
If your department includes a substantial PFT/sleep lab, Respiro is much more directly relevant: it is purpose-built for respiratory and sleep services, supports multi-vendor device imports, reporting, quality management, and HL7 integration with the hospital EMR.
What I'd want an RT-specific system to do
Rather than judging products by the number of features, I'd build the evaluation around the actual RT workflow:
RT worklist: automatically identifies treatments, assessments, protocols and pending tasks.
Interoperability: HL7/FHIR/API support so the RT system doesn't become another isolated chart.
One particularly important point: don't settle for a product that simply gives RT a nicer note template. The biggest potential improvement is eliminating duplicate data entry by bringing ventilator/device data directly into the clinical record. Research on dedicated respiratory-therapy EMR architectures has specifically described integration of multiple ventilator vendors/models with structured respiratory documentation and centralized data.
I can narrow this down considerably
If you tell me these 5 things, I can give you a much more targeted shortlist and a vendor-comparison matrix:
Hospital size: e.g. 100, 300, 500+ beds
Current EHR: Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH, other
Main problem: documentation, ventilator integration, RT workload, billing/charge capture, analytics, or all of these
Adult / pediatric / NICU: which populations?
PFT/sleep lab included? Yes/no
If you're in the U.S., I can also research currently available vendors, approximate implementation models, customer hospitals, interoperability capabilities, and which ones are actually purpose-built for hospital RT rather than pulmonology outpatient practices.
Finding an EMR or documentation workflow that doesn't treat respiratory therapy (RT) as an afterthought is tough. Most enterprise systems force RTs into clunky, click-heavy general nursing flows for vent checks, ABGs, and aerosol protocols.[](https://omnimd.com/specialties/pulmonology-ehr-software/)
Options depend on whether you are looking for an acute/hospital-based department solution or an outpatient/pulmonology clinic workflow.
OmniMD Pulmonology EHR: Best if your department or associated clinic handles heavy outpatient diagnostics, featuring built-in templates for Pulmonary Function Testing (PFT), spirometry workflows, sleep studies, and remote patient monitoring (SpO2/peak flow).[](https://omnimd.com/specialties/pulmonology-ehr-software/)
Yes. The key distinction is what kind of respiratory therapy department you mean. There are relatively few true RT-specific EMRs; many products marketed as “respiratory EHRs” are actually pulmonology-practice systems or DME/home-respiratory-care platforms.
If you're talking about a hospital-based respiratory therapy department, I would look for a respiratory-specific layer that either replaces or integrates with your hospital's existing enterprise EHR, rather than assuming you need an entirely separate patient EMR.
Systems worth investigating
Rezibase — specifically positions itself as a respiratory/sleep data layer that sits alongside an existing hospital EMR. It pulls demographics from the hospital system and sends completed respiratory reports back, with the goal of avoiding duplicate entry.
HealthCall — focused on respiratory-care management and workflow automation, including oxygen therapy, NIV escalation, medication titration, referrals, payer compliance, and structured respiratory assessments.
OmniMD Pulmonology EHR — offers respiratory-specific documentation, PFT/spirometry integration, ventilator-related data, oxygen titration, and pulmonary workflows. It is more oriented toward pulmonary practices than a hospital RT department.
ModuleMD — a pulmonology-specific EHR with respiratory documentation and PFT/diagnostic workflows. Again, its primary target is pulmonary practices rather than hospital RT departments.
CareLogix Health — particularly interesting if your operation includes home respiratory/DME services. It has workflows for oxygen, CPAP, BiPAP, ventilators, RT credentialing, equipment, compliance, and billing documentation.
One product I found called Amber is genuinely designed by/for respiratory therapists, but it is primarily a clinical documentation and competency system for respiratory therapy education, rather than a hospital patient-care EMR.
What I'd want in an RT-specific hospital system
For a hospital RT department, I'd specifically evaluate whether the system can handle:
HL7/FHIR interoperability with the hospital's existing EHR
Audit trails and role-based access
Extremely fast documentation—ideally without requiring RTs to click through dozens of screens
The integration question is probably the most important one. A respiratory system that requires RTs to maintain a second patient demographic/medication/order database can create more work rather than less. Rezibase, for example, explicitly describes its approach as putting a respiratory-specific layer alongside the existing hospital EMR rather than replacing it.
If you tell me (1) whether you're hospital-based, outpatient, LTAC/SNF, or DME/home care, (2) approximately how many RTs you have, and (3) what EMR you currently use—Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, Meditech, etc., I can research the available products and build you a side-by-side comparison specifically for your RT department, including integration, RT workflows, ventilator documentation, pricing/implementation information where publicly available, and likely alternatives.
Yes. The key question is what you mean by “EMR for a respiratory therapy department.” Most hospital EMRs (Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, MEDITECH, etc.) are not really designed around the RT workflow, so many departments end up using customized flowsheets and templates.
There are a few different categories worth considering:
Enterprise respiratory/sleep information system that sits alongside the hospital EMR and integrates with devices and hospital systems
ModuleMD
Pulmonology-focused EMR/practice-management system, particularly PFT and diagnostic workflows
Cellma Pulmonology
Respiratory/pulmonology EMR with structured respiratory templates, spirometry, pulmonary rehab and dashboards
MedicalScribe.app
Not an EMR replacement, but an RT-specific AI documentation layer that can help reduce documentation burden
Custom RT module around your existing EMR
Potentially the best fit for a hospital department if you need deep integration with an existing enterprise EMR
For example, Respiro explicitly covers referrals/bookings, patient management, PFT, sleep and oxygen, reporting/results, EMR distribution, quality management and accreditation. It also supports multiple respiratory equipment vendors and HL7 integration.
Rezibase takes a slightly different approach: it acts as a respiratory/sleep clinical data layer alongside the hospital EMR rather than trying to replace it, with integrations to EMRs, patient-administration systems, respiratory equipment and reporting systems.
If you're talking specifically about an inpatient hospital respiratory therapy department, I'd evaluate systems against these workflows:
RT assessment and reassessment
Respiratory treatments and medication administration
Ventilator checks and ventilator flowsheets
NIV/CPAP/BiPAP documentation
Oxygen delivery/device documentation
High-flow nasal cannula
ABGs and other respiratory labs
Ventilator weaning/SBT documentation
Airway management/intubation/extubation
Respiratory therapy protocols
RT-driven order sets
Patient education
Department workload/task management
Charge capture
RT productivity metrics
Equipment/device integration
Mobile/bedside documentation
Interoperability with your existing EMR
Audit trail and regulatory requirements
One important distinction: pulmonology EMR ≠ respiratory therapy EMR. Products such as ModuleMD and Cellma are oriented toward pulmonology practices and diagnostic/ambulatory respiratory care, while something like Respiro is much closer to a respiratory-department information system.
I can narrow this down considerably
If you tell me (1) your current EMR (Epic, Cerner/Oracle, MEDITECH, etc.), (2) inpatient vs. outpatient, (3) approximate hospital size, and (4) what you dislike about your current RT documentation, I can research the available systems and make you a feature-by-feature comparison, including integration with your existing EMR, RT-specific workflows, implementation considerations, and vendors that actually serve U.S. hospitals.
Finding a dedicated EMR/EHR solution specifically tailored or optimized for a respiratory therapy (RT) department or pulmonology workflow can be tricky, as most major enterprise EMRs (like Epic or Cerner/Oracle Health ) treat respiratory care as a generic module rather than a specialized workflow.
Depending on whether you are looking for an acute-care hospital RT department workflow, an outpatient pulmonary function testing (PFT) clinic, or a specialized data-flow management layer, several options and strategies stand out:
Cellma Pulmonology EHR (by RioMed) : Specifically built for multidisciplinary respiratory care teams. It covers structured respiratory templates, spirometry reporting, and integrates smoothly into PFT devices and radiology/PACS systems. It's a strong fit if you need comprehensive tracking from outpatient diagnostics to inpatient respiratory care.[](https://www.riomed.com/respiratory/)
AdvancedMD Pulmonology EMR : Highly customizable with specialty-specific, physician- and clinician-designed templates. While leaning toward outpatient pulmonology practices, its flexible charting sub-notes and patient tracking/rooming optimizations help reduce bottlenecks for respiratory-heavy workflows.[](https://www.advancedmd.com/specialties/pulmonology/ehr-emr-software/)
Enterprise EMR Respiratory Modules (Epic/Cerner) : If your facility is already tied to a large enterprise system, completely replacing it is rare. Instead, departments often partner with their internal IT/informatics team to build custom RT flowsheets (for ventilator management, arterial blood gases, aerosol treatments, and weaning protocols) rather than adopting a standalone external software.
Specialized Device Data Management (Medtronic/Respironics) : For strict diagnostic and device integration (like spirometry data flows or BiPAP/CPAP compliance tracking), standalone management software can bridge the gap and export data cleanly into a broader EMR.[1][2]
To help narrow down the best path forward, tell me:
Is this for an inpatient hospital department or an outpatient pulmonology/PFT clinic?
Are you looking to replace an existing major EMR (like Epic/Cerner) or find a specialized add-on/standalone system that integrates with your current setup?
What are your biggest pain points with your current charting workflow (e.g., ventilator management, device integration, or speed of documentation)?
Top-rated EMR platforms with strong respiratory and pulmonology specialty capabilities include:
NextGen Healthcare - Highly ranked by independent research organizations (like Black Book) for Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine specialty workflows. It offers robust discrete data integration for test results, ambient AI-assisted listening tools to reduce heavy after-hours charting, and comprehensive templates for respiratory care.
Pulmonology-Cloud - Specifically built around complex pulmonary diagnostics, chronic disease management (COPD/asthma), and built-in tracking for pulmonary testing workflows and mobile scribing. [](https://www.pulmonology-cloud.com/)
Cellma (RioMed) - A dedicated pulmonology EHR designed for respiratory specialists across outpatient, inpatient, and pulmonary rehabilitation settings, featuring direct spirometry reporting and device integrations. [](https://www.riomed.com/respiratory/)
OmniMD Pulmonology EHR - Tailored specifically for respiratory care, featuring embedded PFT/spirometry integration, automated coding/billing for complex pulmonary functions (like diffusion capacities and spirometry variants), and patient logs for oxygen or CPAP data. [](https://omnimd.com/specialties/pulmonology-ehr-software/)
ModuleMD - Designed alongside practicing clinicians with predefined, customizable workflows explicitly mapped to pulmonary function testing and diagnostic tracking. [](https://modulemd.com/pulmonology/)
To help narrow down the ideal platform for your setup, could you share:
Is this for an inpatient hospital department or an outpatient/ambulatory pulmonology clinic?
Do you need direct bi-directional device integration for specific PFT or spirometry hardware?
Yes. The key is to distinguish between a pulmonology EHR and an RT-focused clinical/operational system. They are not the same thing.
If you're talking about a hospital respiratory therapy department—RTs documenting treatments, ventilators, oxygen, NIV/BiPAP, protocols, assessments, charges, equipment, workload, etc.—I would not start with a generic pulmonology EHR. Current products marketed specifically for pulmonology tend to emphasize physician clinic workflows, PFTs, billing, and chronic disease management.
What I'd look for in an RT-specific system
A good respiratory department EMR/RTIS should ideally handle:
RT assessment and reassessment
respiratory assessment
breath sounds
oxygen requirement
SpO₂
respiratory rate/work of breathing
ABGs/VBGs
ventilatory status
Treatment documentation
nebulizers
MDI treatments
CPT/HCPCS-linked treatments
airway clearance
oxygen therapy
HFNC
CPAP/BiPAP
ventilator checks
Ventilator documentation
mode/settings
pressures/volumes
FiO₂
alarms
compliance/resistance
weaning trials
spontaneous breathing trials
ventilator-associated-event documentation
Protocols and clinical decision support
RT-driven bronchodilator protocols
oxygen protocols
ventilator/weaning protocols
escalation/de-escalation workflows
automatic reassessment requirements
Department operations
RT workload board
patient/task assignment
treatment schedules
STAT treatments
handoff
staffing/productivity
department dashboards
Equipment
ventilator/device assignment
serial numbers
equipment location
maintenance
patient-device linkage
That last category is particularly important if you're managing respiratory care across multiple facilities; respiratory platforms increasingly treat equipment and clinical documentation as connected workflows rather than separate systems.
Products I'd put on the shortlist
There are a few different categories worth investigating:
1. HealthCall — particularly interesting if your department is involved in chronic/home respiratory care. Its platform has respiratory-specific care programs, treatment escalation, oxygen/NIV workflows, payer compliance, and structured clinical documentation.
2. CareLogix Health — more operational/DME-oriented. It specifically addresses oxygen, CPAP, BiPAP and ventilator workflows, equipment-specific documentation, compliance and respiratory billing requirements.
3. ModuleMD — worth considering if what you really need is a pulmonology/respiratory practice EHR, rather than an inpatient RT department system. It has specialty documentation, PFT workflows and spirometry integration.
4. Pulmonology-Cloud — another pulmonology-specific platform, with respiratory documentation, PFTs, sleep/respiratory disorders, COPD/asthma workflows and RT support. Again, I'd evaluate it as a pulmonary practice EHR, not assume it is an inpatient RTIS.
I don't see a clear market leader that is essentially the "Epic for respiratory therapy departments"—a mature, standalone RTIS that comprehensively handles inpatient RT documentation, ventilators, treatments, staffing/work queues, equipment, billing and analytics.
That's why I'd approach this as a system-selection project, rather than simply looking for "the best respiratory EMR."
If you tell me what kind of RT department you have (e.g., acute-care hospital, LTACH, SNF, home respiratory/DME, pulmonary clinic, or a combination) and what EMR you're using now (Epic, Oracle Health/Cerner, Meditech, etc.), I can build you a side-by-side shortlist of the best systems, including integration capabilities, RT-specific functionality, estimated cost/implementation considerations, and questions to ask vendors during demos.
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:
RT workflow
What the system should do
RT patient worklist
Show every RT patient, location, acuity, therapy, due tasks, and priority
Respiratory assessment
Structured assessment rather than a generic nursing note
Oxygen therapy
Device, flow/FiO₂, target SpO₂, titration, response and protocol documentation
Ventilator charting
Mode, settings, measured values, alarms, waveforms/device data where possible
ABG/VBG
Automatically pull results and display trends
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:
Hospital size: e.g. 100 beds, 500 beds, multi-hospital system
Current EMR: Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, MEDITECH, other
What you dislike about the current RT documentation: too many clicks, poor workflow, missing ventilator data, bad reporting, etc.
Adult, pediatric, NICU, or all three
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.
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. [](https://www.mindbowser.com/best-pulmonology-ehr/)
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.[](https://wellsky.com/acute-respiratory-rehabilitation-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.[](https://modulemd.com/pulmonology/)
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.[](https://omnimd.com/specialties/pulmonology-ehr-software/)
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.[](https://www.riomed.com/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:
a respiratory-specific clinical platform that integrates with your hospital EMR, or
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
Platform
Best fit
RT-specific focus
Integration
MEDITECH Expanse
Hospitals already on MEDITECH
Strong therapist workflows, mobile documentation, charge capture
Native hospital EHR
Net Health ReDoc
Therapy departments, particularly outpatient
Purpose-built therapy documentation, billing/compliance, AI documentation
Can be built specifically around vents, oxygen, treatments, rounds, protocols, etc.
Depends on architecture
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
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.
