September 9, 2022 marked the close of another very successful SCSRC annual conference; this proved to be a recording setting year for the state society with over 180 attendees, including therapists from states such as Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and, of course, all over South Carolina, students from five of the state’s seven technical colleges, speakers from all over the nation and a total of 52 vendors represented.
Len Geiger from Jacksonville, Florida presented a lecture about his experiences with having Alpha1 Antitrypsin deficiency and where that took on a road to a double lung transplant. Many in the audience were moved to tears and have asked to have him come to all of our conferences.
Jim Damron gave a lecture about Prescribing Suicide, which proved to be thought provoking; he was also a favorite among those in attendance.
These are only two of the highly rated lectures that were presented at the conference.
The Brief Tobacco Intervention training program that has been a project/partnership with SC DHEC for the past two years was also rolled out; this training program offers one hour of CRCE free to AARC/SCSRC members and is $10 for non-AARC members. Ms. Katy Wynne, with the SC DHEC Tobacco Quitline, presented a lecture on “Evidence That Supports Clinical Intervention with Patients Who Smoke or Vape” as a part of this roll out.
The RT students had their own half day break out sessions where they spent time with representatives from different vendor companies, including Vapotherm, Carolina Diagnostics Solutions, Sentec, to name a few, and Duke University Medical Center. This was held in the Dunes Ballroom of the Hilton hotel, with amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean surrounding them.
The celebration dinner, with a Halloween theme, was held on Wednesday evening, with the costume contest winners being announced the following day; congratulations to all on your creativity!
The exhibit hall was well attended; the Program Committee heard over and over from the exhibitors in attendance that our exhibit hall is the best in the region!
The annual business meeting was conducted on Wednesday afternoon, where the results of the election were announced; congratulations to all and we look forward to working with you in the new year of 2023. Mr. Wayne Barfield, one of delegates to the AARC’s House of Delegates, was the recipient of the 2022 President’s Award. Mr. Mike Bianchi, the SCSRC’s webmaster, was the recipient of the 2022 Palmetto Award, in recognition of the many years of commitment and value he has brought to the SCSRC by managing and maintaining the website, often donating time to the care and maintenance of the website.
The 2022 Department of the Year award was given to Prisma Health Hillcrest Hospital Respiratory Care Department – Congratulations!
The 2022 Leadership Practitioner of the Year award recipient was Kelcy Scott, RRT-NPS, from the Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina.
The 2022 Region of the Year was the Midlands Region – congratulations to directors Terrica Rice and Amanda Coffey!
All in all, it was a very successful conference; plans are already underway for the 52nd Annual Conference scheduled for September 2023! We hope to see you there!