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Lakeland Respiratory Consulting Services Inc Celebrates 30 Years in Business
Lakeland Respiratory Consulting Services Inc Celebrates 30 Years in Business
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
It’s been just over 30 years since Doreen and her husband Brian Tennant started their Vegreville based respiratory services company.
While they continue to operate the business, it was officially acquired by Air Liquide in 2019, and as a result continues to grow in new and exciting ways. “We have affiliate brands throughout Canada that we deal with now since we were acquired,” says Doreen, who serves as Managing Director. The acquisition means greater services throughout the country as well as availability to a variety of products, equipment and services.
While Vegreville continues to serve as the hub, they also operate locations in Bonnyville, St. Paul, Camrose and Edmonton.
There have been many changes throughout the years, and one more change is expected to happen this fall. “We’re expanding the business,” says Doreen. The new location in Vegreville is currently under construction and Doreen hopes it will be move in ready by Nov. 1. The amount of square footage will increase from 3,500 sq. ft. in its current location to 7,000 in the new facility.
What also makes Lakeland Respiratory unique is that it is a full service company. “We supply all the products and all the equipment. It comes here to Vegreville to be serviced and repaired. We’re the repair center for all of our locations. We’re the inventory warehouse for all of our patients and logistics control for trucks that deliver oxygen tanks to other centres.”
Surprisingly, Doreen says, “A lot of people believe that we’re just an oxygen company, and don’t understand that it’s sleep diagnostics and lung lab. It’s a whole lot more.” Admittedly, “Some people don’t even realize we exist in the community of Vegreville.”
They continue to see a growth in patients every single year, notes Doreen. “People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are a big client of ours. COPD is very under diagnosed as is sleep apnea. Unfortunately, Doreen says that many times people with COPD get diagnosed too late and they are not able to make much of a difference in their lives. She also points out that, “COPD should never be diagnosed unless they have that lung test done.
With sleep apnea, people that go undiagnosed can develop some of the other demons like diabetes and high blood pressure. By the mere presence of us being here locally, it gets diagnosis to people quicker. That’s what the lung lab does, a definitive diagnosis.” She adds, “We don’t just do diagnostics. We do assessments. We work very closely with doctors. To me, that’s one of the very exciting things we do. When you find out you contribute to the diagnosis of a patient that’s going to be life changing or lifesaving, there’s nothing more rewarding. To see the benefits of what you’ve done make a difference.”
Doreen started her career in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). “I worked in the ICU at the University of Alberta for two years. The one thing that you never see, as soon as patients are off the ventilator they’re out of ICU. You never get to see the merits of your work. Here, you get to see the merits of your work. Here, you get to see what you do makes a difference.”
In several ways they contribute to a patient’s quality of life. Doreen says she took an oath to do no harm and says you have to accept everybody from all walks of life. “You have to look at from their eyes, not yours. We focus on patient centered care. We’re about what the patient wants, not what we want.”
Lakeland Respiratory currently has approximately 30 employees. “We employ registered occupational and respiratory therapists, licensed practical nurses, therapy assistants and biomedical repair specialists. When the business was started, one of the motivating factors was that we wanted to serve the rural population. We found that many people in a lot of ways were disadvantaged when you had to rely on services coming out of tertiary centers.”
Doreen says they modelled their business on being a “one stop shop” so customers could come to one place for services. They have seen thousands of patients over the years and currently have about 3,000 patients. They have diversified and expanded their business over the years and are looking forward to reaching new milestones in patient care and services in the future right here in Vegreville.
