 My name is Tom Colstrom. I'm the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the American Association for Respiratory Care. The American Association for Respiratory Care really is better known as the AARC. And today we reaffirm our commitment to the Patient Safety Foundation, Patient Safety Movement Foundation, rather. Respiratory therapists are front and center to potential circumstances where patients can be put in harm's way. We work and live in a high tech and a high touch world where a misplaced in the tracheal tube, an accidental extubation, or an alarm on a ventilator that goes unattended could result in an adverse situation that could easily lead to the death of a patient if not handled immediately and appropriately. This can happen to the most attentive clinicians. The AARC represents the interests of the respiratory therapist and we take our obligation of a patient being a patient advocate very seriously. We try to instill a higher level of acumen of our 50,000 members and all practicing respiratory therapists throughout the country. And we do this by representing the RT through postgraduate education and advocacy on Capitol Hill, as well as educating a well-rounded RT student in the classroom and other arenas. We want to assure that the care provided and given by a competent and professional respiratory therapist happens. And to this end, the AARC has developed protocols that allow the therapist to be able to use their skills as an assessor and a caregiver, resulting in a safe and efficacious care for our patients. We've also developed checklists that are used in the ICU and on patient care divisions outside of the ICU. A patient who is discharged from the ICU before they are ready to be discharged should never happen, but unfortunately in our hospitals it does all too often. So this checklist in particular verifies the readiness for discharge from a pulmonary perspective, as well as associated safeguards with it. And it's something that the respiratory therapists, the physician and the nurse and others involved in the patient's care do it together. The AARC has a patient safety committee with well over 100 members who serve as leaders in this area, and in fact within the AARC there are state affiliates who already have publicly committed to the goals of the patient safety movement. In our practice, RTs must be aware of the health literacy of the patient and their family and be prepared to read back and let the patient teach back when we educate them. This is crucial so we don't see readmissions to the hospital. While this seems not connected to the patient's safety, it is. A patient or caregiver that is not deemed competent to do an intervention only sets them up for potential problems. The patient safety movement's goal is our goal. And as we start this year, we commit to stand with this movement and we'll continue to disseminate the patient safety movement foundation solutions to our members. And to communicate why it is essential that RTs not only join the effort, but also become leaders in their hospitals in the patient safety movement foundation. Thank you very much.