Respironics Waveform Reports Have a 1 Hour Delay; Know Why?

[Pugsy]

adjusting with the factory softwatre package and connector:

I bet I could make a small fortune resetting old Respironics machine clocks if I had that connector and software.
I wouldn't even have to charge much to get it done either.

[kerriberri]

We're evaluating our data with Respironics software & hubby is troubled by the fact that every Waveform report begins exactly one hour after he remembers putting the mask on. If he turns the machine on at 10:15, the next day's waveform report starts at 11:15 PM. Wakeup times are the same (i.e. 7:30 AM).

Hi, Guys--

Just an update on all this. It looks like the actual delay time is 45 minutes, not an hour. We paid more attention last night to the difference between the "mask up" time and the waveform report time. Last night's waveform starts at 11:06 PM, but he masked up around 10:20 PM.

I appreciate all the feedback, but I don't think this is a clock issue, since the times are accurate on the waveform, just the delay in the start time for recording data on the report (i.e. wakeup times are perfectly accurate).

I didn't think it would help that much to post any chart jpgs, simply because the data's all correct, and the hour (or 45 minute) difference in masking up & reporting isn't really "viewable" through looking at any waveform charts.

HOWEVER, as I thought more about this, I decided to look through the machine setup menu (on the machine itself) & found what I THINK might be the culprit. I mentioned hubby doesn't use RAMP and starts therapy at full pressure. The machine is currently set for a 45 minute RAMP & I'm thinking this might account for the 45 minute "missing time" at the beginning of the waveform.

This is just a theory at this point, but I just reset the RAMP to zero. We'll look at the waveform data again tomorrow & then let you all know if that did or did not solve this issue. Of course, this # may be merely coincidental & this might not have a thing to do with the delay in the waveform start time. We'll know a little more tomorrow AM.

Thanks again for all the feedback; you guys have a lot of great ideas & suggestions!

[Pugsy]

The machine is currently set for a 45 minute RAMP & I'm thinking this might account for the 45 minute "missing time" at the beginning of the waveform.

I am thinking you figured out the culprit. I have never used ramp and mine was set to zero which effectively turns off the ramp feature. I think that during ramp nothing gets recorded. Never thought about that spot in the setup menu because most people who don't use it have it set to zero. Maybe it tells the machine to not record during this time frame even though ramp isn't actually used.
I bet tomorrows reports will be fixed. Good to know this piece of information. It is something I just didn't think to put together.

[kerriberri]

The machine is currently set for a 45 minute RAMP & I'm thinking this might account for the 45 minute "missing time" at the beginning of the waveform.

I am thinking you figured out the culprit. I have never used ramp and mine was set to zero which effectively turns off the ramp feature. I think that during ramp nothing gets recorded. Never thought about that spot in the setup menu because most people who don't use it have it set to zero. Maybe it tells the machine to not record during this time frame even though ramp isn't actually used.
I bet tomorrows reports will be fixed. Good to know this piece of information. It is something I just didn't think to put together.

Thanks, Pugsy; let's keep our fingers crossed.

You know, if someone's just on the EDGE of compliance & doesn't use their RAMP, this is an issue they need to be aware of. Tomorrow should tell the tale.

[kerriberri]

Hi, Guys--

We're evaluating our data with Respironics software & hubby is troubled by the fact that every Waveform report begins exactly one hour after he remembers putting the mask on. If he turns the machine on at 10:15, the next day's waveform report starts at 11:15 PM. Wakeup times are the same (i.e. 7:30 AM).

I can't seem to find any info about this online or in the forums (maybe not looking in the right places?).

It seems to me that the one hour delay on software reporting has been programmed in so that the program isn't averaging in odd wave patterns from a patient working themselves into a sleep state. It makes sense that they'd simply "start" sleep measurement about an hour after turning on the machine, when a patient's breathing pattern would be reflective of actual sleep.

HOWEVER, hubby wants a REAL answer, not just my invented/created/hypothesized answer.

Anybody know why the software (or the CPAP machine itself) starts recording an hour after applying the mask?

Or is our machine programmed oddly?

Thanks for your thoughts!

SUCCESS! Problem solved. This was actually a 45 minute delay in the data in the waveform report, caused by the RAMP setting in the machine (set at 45 minutes by the DME). Husband NEVER uses the RAMP function, but since this was set at 45 minutes, all data was being completely ignored for the first 45 minutes of therapy.

This may be an important issue for CPAPers who are having a hard time making their 4 hour compliance time. IF YOU DON'T USE RAMP, MAKE SURE IT IS TURNED OFF IN YOUR MACHINE, or you will be "giving away" time you're actually devoting to your therapy & you're not getting full credit for the work you're actually doing.

Thanks, guys, for all the suggestions!

[Pugsy]

Thanks for confirming.
You are right...if someone is borderline making compliance this could maybe mess things up for them in a big way.
Now we all learned something first hand...the trick will be if I can remember it 6 months from now if someone pops up with the same problem.
Most people don't even know about waveform and wouldn't even think to look at the times.

[archangle]

We should check and see if it reports compliance hours correctly despite the ramp. That would be a terrible error if it doesn't, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[kerriberri]

We should check and see if it reports compliance hours correctly despite the ramp. That would be a terrible error if it doesn't, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Glad you brought that issue up; after reading your post, I checked the waveforms on two different days (one before resetting RAMP and one after).

I'm happy to say I was WRONG--you don't have to worry about turning RAMP off if you don't use it. My concern that others who had RAMP turned on but didn't use it might be short-changed on their therapy times for compliance was wrong. It appears that the machine will fairly log your therapy times (YAY!).

The machine DOES COMPENSATE for the RAMP time and DOES give you full credit for ramp time as therapy, even though it doesn't happen to record any waveform data for the period of time the machine is set to allocate to RAMP (whether you actually use it or not).

Just FYI for the dataheads:

8/25 RAMP was ON but not used. Used machine from about 10:21 PM to 7:03 AM. Waveform report only recorded from 11:06 PM to 7:03 AM (the first 45 minutes of data is missing), but he WAS credited with the full 8 hrs 32 minutes and 52 seconds of therapy.

8/25 RAMP was OFF. Waveform recorded the full session, from 11:19 PM to 7:01 AM and credited him for 7 hours 42 minutes 35 seconds of therapy time.

Good thinking, archangel--that was definitely worth checking out!

[Pugsy]

The machine DOES COMPENSATE for the RAMP time and DOES give you full credit for ramp time as therapy, even though it doesn't happen to record any waveform data for the period of time the machine is set to allocate to RAMP (whether you actually use it or not).

I thought this would be the case and I was going to ask you to check to make sure. Reasoning being that often people wake up in the middle of the night for whatever reason and when they go turn the machine back on they often continue to use the ramp (for sure use it) and it really could mess up compliance if it happened a lot.
I thought that I had read that ramp time counted in hours of use but I couldn't find anything to back me up on it.
It should show on the detailed graphs if someone uses the ramp and thus be counted in usage.
I did not ever use the ramp so I couldn't go back to my reports to verify one way or the other.