Simpler Sleep Apnea Treatment Seems Effective, Affordable

[tattooyu]

Not sure if this was posted or not. Couldn't find it using Search.

Simpler Sleep Apnea Treatment Seems Effective, Affordable

[Babette]

Big deal. You see a nurse instead of a doctor. What's the diff?
B.

[Paul56]

With my SELF-LED care I'm saving thousands!

[junie]

Thanks for the article

[split_city]

Hey that's from our research group . Dr. Nick Antic is a sleep physician with us and completed his PhD last year.

Big deal. You see a nurse instead of a doctor. What's the diff?
B.

Babette, I think the title of this thread and the article may have misled you. The study wasn't run to come up with better treatment alternative, but to determine whether there is an alternative/more cost effective way to manage sleep apnea. The nurse-led arm was more cost effective while maintaining patient outcomes similar to that seen by the patient-doctor arm.

I think the quote below is important:

"While we were not surprised at this finding, we were very pleased as it indicates a robust new avenue for providing better access to sleep services for those with moderate-severe OSA in a timely yet cost-effective fashion without sacrificing patient outcomes,"

[jda1000]

Interesting article...but I wonder if it really just confirms a classic American business model: push all possible tasks as far down the billing structure as possible...

For instance, my CPAP experience so far has included just two doctor visits: one to prescribe the PSG, another before they'd give me AmbienCR...all else - the PSG, the machine delivery and set up, and the very limited follow-up customer care from the DME has all been by technicians. Except the sales rep who delivered my machine. He wasn't even really a technician.

The PSG technician was great. The rest of it? Goofy.

Perhaps in the Oz study they saved $722 going from MDs to nurses - but my care team already has eliminated most of the MD part, and I doubt the savings could be realized again....

Still - I'd support anything that'd control costs...even half the $722 is good hard coin, particularly for those lacking insurance.

[tdm5032c]

Don't even get me started on this one. My sleep studies already consisted of only a poorly trained technician monitering me for two separate visits. The first time, the technician I had told me in the morning when I woke up that I didn't need a CPAP machine as I didn't have very bad apnea. My follow-up visit with the sleep doctor, and she told me I had SEVERE sleep apnea and wanted me to come back for a second night so they could see what pressure worked the best. That's when I was titrated at 9. After that I got the prescription from the doc and got the machine and mask I wanted(had to insist on that). Haven't heard from them or Apria since, and its been almost five months now. As I've said before, if you don't take charge of your OWN care, no one else will. Education is the ONLY effective treatment in my opinion. Doesn't matter who runs the sleep study, a doctor or a nurse, if the patient is educated and knows what to look for and what they need. Just my opinion.

Thanks to everyone on here who helped to educate me on my treatment. There is a HUGE wealth of knowledge on here on lots of friendly people that are more than willing to help. Thanks

[Slinky]

So many times, and it seems more and more, the sleep doctor is useless anyway. Gimme a good RPSGT and a script pad and ferget the sleep doctor.

[carbonman]

This article does offer us an alternative to compliance.
Would appear to be a much more literal definition also.

"There were no significant differences in outcomes,
including levels of sleepiness,
quality of life measures,
ability to do maze tasks and CPAP adherence."


Main Entry: ad·her·ence
Function:
noun
1 : the act, action, or quality of adhering
2 : steady or faithful attachment : fidelity


Main Entry: ad·here
intransitive verb
1: to give support or maintain loyalty
2.: to hold fast or stick by or as if by gluing, suction, grasping, or fusing
3: to bind oneself to observance <adhere to the rules>

As needed, new, complex algorithms will need to be written
to convert compliance data to adherence data.