Improving Outcomes for Patients With Tracheostomy Through Implementation of AARC Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Background: The COVID-19 global pandemic dramatically increased our institution's tracheostomy census. Comparing our existing protocols with American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) January 2021 clinical practice guideline (CPG) relevant to caring for adult patients with tracheostomy in the acute care setting revealed numerous opportunities for improving our care of those patients. We assembled an interdisciplinary tracheostomy team to implement AARC CPG recommendations and manage all patients with tracheostomy in our hospital.