to start home sleep study service in our clinic

I would like to get ideas for to start home sleep studyes service in our clinic...
thank you

What type of clinic is it - a general clinic or sleep clinic? Regulations will depend on where you are located. Since established medical facilities would already have access to requirements to provide different services, I'm guessing you are looking for suggestions from a patient's perspective? Or are you asking this of those who already do home sleep studies? It might be helpful if you would clarify what kind of information you seek.

How does one do a home sleep study in a clinic?

LinkC, some sleep clinics are setting up or already offering at-home testing as outline by the new Medicare approvals to pay for certain at-home sleep studies and if results are positive for 0SA Medicare will then pay for a 3 month trial on CPAP after which time some patients will then be eligible for a full in-lab PSG if necessary. I'm not wording this well but I think you will get the drift.

CMS is paying for different types of home studies right now. Some regions aren't getting off the ground very quickly, but some are doing well. What they are called are unattended ambulatory sleep studies. Basically someone comes to your house, does the full hookup and then the information is transferred to a satelite location elsewhere. That way the study is actually being monitored. They have different levels of ambulatory studies. Some have less sensors and the information isn't looked at until the equipment is picked up. Others are a full sleep study and are being monitored. This is the way of the future. They are much more detailed than the apnea screeners they have available everywhere. As to the original question of getting started, good luck. I was going to do this myself, but between trying to get insurance companies to put you on a preferred list, getting licensed, getting the right people to work for you, etc. its a nightmare that I wasn't willing to explore. If I read it right, if you are going to own the business and practice as well, you need a degree in respiratory (or hire someone with the degree to run it for you.) There are other ways around that, but bottom line is that CMS is not going to start paying any Joe Blow to run sleep studies. Thats why DME's don't run them, because they can't sell the machine if they run the study.

Guest wrote:What they are called are unattended ambulatory sleep studies. Basically someone comes to your house, does the full hookup and then the information is transferred to a satelite location elsewhere. That way the study is actually being monitored.

I guess I don't quite understand ... when you say "full hookup", are you talking about for every channel as if the hookup were for a full PSG at a sleep lab? What are the channels a Level II home study records?

I'm also puzzled by what "that way the study is actually being monitored" means? Is the data being relayed in real time to a remote location and being monitored all during the night by a person at the satellite site?

I guess I thought that an "unattended ambulatory sleep study" meant there was no monitoring by anyone during the night at home while the home study was in progress. But I'm sure not up on the various home study equipment stuff...or sleep lab equipment either, for that matter! Just a "cpap user" here.

Interesting, PolysomonoMan. I've never quite figured out what the various "levels" (??) were, I remember reading IV, III, etc.

A home study was fine for me. I was given a machine that had a sensor that fit around my finger and a microphone device to wear under my nose. A month or so later, Apria called and said they had filled the prescription the doctor had sent them, so I went down there and learned about apnea disease.

I too am interested in starting a home testing business. I have just completed a polysomnography program. It appears to me that you must have all tests read by a boarded Sleep MD. I am not sure about an affiliation with a sleep lab.

LinkC wrote:How does one do a home sleep study in a clinic?

I had one from my hospital clinic. There was a chest belt with a recording device, a finger attachment for oxygen blood levels and a set of tubes that went under my nose. I got it at the lab, was shown how to put it on (and was much better instructed then at my DME since I had to show them how to do it) and was told to return it the next morning. Then I was given a prescription for the CPAP and told to book another test after a month. Next week I will do the other with my mask for titration.
As a basic first test it is much easier to handle then what you guys have all been describing. The prescription is working pretty good - yesterday night my AI was 0. An acquaintance in my knitting group had more in depth studies done because she had the other kind of Apnea (central?) where her brain shut down her breathing.

Nowadays getting sleepy is becoming a big task for me,. Can't able to sleep well due to tensions got from the day. DO you think that going to home sleepy clinic will help me? I am not much sure about this, so can anyone give me a suggestion

i really don't have any idea about what is sleep clinic and whether they can help me. So some other has to suggest me. But still as the name indicates i may get a little improvement if i contact them, i hope.

I have a suggestion for tanju8, 1V0ECWP, and stbalaji2u. Go to another forum with your nonsense. And that is my nice way of saying it.

Rooster, you may be picking on someone whose English is a second language: not perfect, but good enough to be understood. Why so negative?

You xxx, that is a spammer using multiple Guest IDs and probably using multiple IP addresses. You made a knee-jerk conclusion that my post had something to do with the English the spammer used.