Encore Pro - not reliable per sleep tech

MRH · Post by **MRH** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:11 pm

I wonder about the gal that I had for my study. I could hear her in the other room talking to aanother person when she was turning on her computer for the night.... Wouldn't trun on for her then I heard her apoligize that the monitor was shut off Then she got my name wrong on the report to my Doc, used my middle name which is my Dads first name. I asked for my report from the Doc which is my Dads Doc too. Guess what my report was in his file!!! Wouldn' t that have been a suprise since he has never had a sleep study(I think he could use one though, Stubborn old guy!!)

Mark

painterman · Post by **painterman** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:49 pm

well that Tech better have a good talk with Kaiser Permante. I was sent home with an auto in the tank version to get my titration. And what do they base their conclusion on???? encore pro reports

I really don't know if that is good or bad but that is what it is and they only do a psg if there are other "problems"

Jon

Slinky · Post by **Slinky** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:01 pm

You know, that's not all that bad an idea to reduce costs: the big IF would be IF they would also provide a heated humidifer and IF the DMEs would work diligently w/the patient to be sure they got a comfortable, good fitting mask ASAP. Once a successful titration was acheived w/the autoPAP if there were any unexplained further problems THEN do the full PSG.

goose · Post by **goose** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:15 pm

Slinky's right -- How can a doc interpret a report if the tech doesn't interpret the numbers correctly??

I still have no idea how I titrated at a 5cm H2O during my second test.
After the first test 6cm and 8cm didn't get me below an AHI of 7. Taking that into consideration I guessed my final number would be between 10 and 12. Then the titration test came in at 5cm

Five hardly allows me to breathe - AHI was 13+. Had it changed to 7cm. A little better but AHI was 11+. So I set it myself at 10 (bottom end of my guess) and my AHI over 6 weeks has averaged about 2.5.....a bit closer!!!
I'm about to change it to 11 and see if I can get it closer to zero -- we'll see.
Once that's settled, I'll set it back to APAP mode with a narrow range and allow it to do a titration over a period of time. The doc and I use EP to interpret the data and I have a sneaky suspicion that the Doc knows a bit more about sleep data than he does (it's her specialty!!)

cheers
goose

AdmiralCougar · Post by **AdmiralCougar** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:19 pm

painterman wrote:well that Tech better have a good talk with Kaiser Permante. I was sent home with an auto in the tank version to get my titration. And what do they base their conclusion on???? encore pro reports

I really don't know if that is good or bad but that is what it is and they only do a psg if there are other "problems"

Jon

LOL my Kaiser R.R.T. always wants print outs of my Encore data. He doesn't even ask to see my card anymore, just expects my print outs and me to offer him my thumb drive for him to update the my Encore data on his computer. I feel much better about my card not going anywhere near his computer since his has a tendency to eat patients cards lately...

I can say if your Kaiser has a waiting list as long as 4 months like mine then I can see why they may be trying to titrate some patients with the auto when it seems feasible.

I was suppose have my full Titration study (since my first sleep study was a split and they didn't find adequate settings in that time to lower the events and keep my O2 up) between the 1st and 15th of next month but the soonest they could get me an appointment for was December 3rd. I'm going to try calling in for cancellations here in the next week or so to try and get in. If they need to add O2 I think it would be best to know before I have surgery on October 25th.

Encore Pro - not reliable per sleep tech

Sleep tech