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Centers of Excellence

The Brian Center

Brian Center team

The Brian Center, located in Virginia, is a long-term ventilator unit with an emphasis on weaning and decannulation. Being the only facility in southwest Virginia that accepts ventilator patients exclusively, The Brian Center has patients from Virginia, West Virginia, and North and South Carolina. Approximately 45% of the patients at The Brian Center are actively weaning. The Passy Muir® Valve is used by the majority of these patients as it is essential to the weaning process and having patients acclimate to breathing through their mouth and nose again.

Patients that initially do not tolerate cuff deflation do much better with cuff deflation once the Passy Muir Valve is placed. Because patients can communicate with staff and gain a sense of control and confidence, weaning trials are tolerated more successfully with the Valve in-line. The respiratory therapists work closely with the speech-language pathologists on the treatment of swallowing and returning the patients to oral feeding. With the use of the Valve, which restores subglottic air pressure, the therapists have seen a decrease in aspiration. The patients also notice an increase in appetite when their sense of smell and taste is restored. The clinicians at The Brian Center take great pride in offering a facility dedicated to the ventilated population and attribute much of the success of their program to their collaborative team effort and the use of the Passy Muir Valve.

Success Story

Policies and Procedures

Click here to download The Brian Center’s Passy Muir® Valve Protocol.