Linde RSS Provides REMEO® Ventilation Services to Skilled Nursing Facilities in Western U.S.

LIVINGSTON, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ventilator dependent respiratory patients in three Skilled Nursing Facilities in the Western U.S. now have a better chance of going home earlier, thanks to the addition of cutting edge respiratory treatment and standards of care in their facilities. Livingston, Tennessee-based Linde RSS is providing its REMEO® ventilation and weaning services in Utah to Trinity Mission Health & Rehab Centerof Provo LLC and Trinity Mission Health & Rehab of Roy LLC and in Idaho to Trinity Mission Health & Rehab of Midland LLC in Nampa.

Linde RSS is an affiliate of Linde North America, which is a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading healthcare, gases and engineering company. REMEO, Linde’s innovative care program, specializes in the care of long-term ventilated patients. Derived from the Latin remeo ("I return home"), REMEO combines the expertise, staff and equipment to help manage the gap between the time when a patient no longer needs monitoring in an intensive care unit and when homecare is not yet possible.

“We’re excited and proud that Linde RSS was selected as the respiratory provider. It’s a confirmation that Linde’s REMEO ventilation and weaning approach sets the standard of care by liberating more patients from mechanical ventilation and vastly improving the expected outcomes and quality of life for them and their families,” said Gene Gantt, REMEO business development manager.

“This is also the first entrance of our REMEO ventilation services in Western U.S., which establishes a footprint for our future expansion,” Gantt said.

Linde RSS was chosen by these facilities because of significant, positive changes in patient outcomes using best practice standards of care developed in the REMEO program at Dove Health & Rehab of Collierville LLC in Tennessee, where Linde RSS manages the REMEO ventilation and weaning program in partnership with the facilities’ committed staff of professionals.

Judy Ullery RN, NHA, president of all four Skilled Nursing Facilities said, “The partnership has been extremely successful and, as a medically trained professional, I have seen how the quality of life has improved for these patients by liberating them from the ventilator.”

U.S. healthcare reform legislation is expected to make advanced, long-term care a vital link in the provision of medical services. This is especially true in the area of ventilated patients, where increasing costs have become problematic for state Medicaid programs. Across the U.S., more than 600,000 patients are projected to require prolonged mechanical ventilation by 2020, with about one-third of them expected to require specialized long-term care.

Since Linde began working at Trinity’s Idaho and Utah facilities in Fall 2010, the REMEO® teams have liberated many patients from long-term mechanical ventilation or tracheostomy, saving the states’ Medicaid programs approximately $300,000 a year per patient, for a combined total to date of over $3 million a year.

Gantt said, “The REMEO approach sets the standard of care for ventilated patients. This is why at least six U.S. states have already adopted the REMEO standards for all ventilator care providers and more are considering doing so.” These standards include having respiratory therapists onsite 24/7, continuous alarm systems and state-of-the-art portable ventilator systems.

About The Linde Group

The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 48,700 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2010 financial year, it achieved sales of EUR 12.9 billion (USD 17.9 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards long-term profitable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.

For more information, see The Linde Group online at www.remeo.com or http://www.linde.com.