My husband did at home sleep test last week and...

I returned the equipment Thursday morning and they said it usually takes 2 weeks to get the results but with the holidays and one doctor being out on maternity leave it would probably take longer. So I was shocked when the doctor's office called me Monday morning (yes my husband has signed a release for them to talk to me about him!) and said he has sleep apnea and will need to go in to the sleep lab to have the titration. Then yesterday they called me back and said that our insurance said to just prescribe him auto machine and skip the in lab titration. So they sent the information over to the DME of my choice and he has an appointment TODAY to get his auto pap machine. Wow is this ever fast - 1 week from study to machine. I haven't seen the sleep study to know what his numbers were but I hope to at least see it today and I know his doctor will give us a copy of it next time we are in there too.

I have already informed the DME that my husband wants the new Resmed AirSense 10 Autoset and they said okay. We will see what happens when we get there. No one in town offers the AirSense For Her version or he would be getting that.

On a side note, it took some time, but I have been successful in arranging to end my relationship with my current DME and switch to a new DME even though I am part way through my capped rental. I am returning my current rented S9 to the old DME today and get a new machine from the new DME. So we should be walking in to this new DME and walking out with TWO AirSense 10 Autosets today. I sure hope it all goes well...

Good job on all fronts.
Hubby's result were likely enough to get their attention and put him on the fast track for equipment.
Glad you got rid of the PITA DME. Feels good doesn't it?

Pugsy wrote:Good job on all fronts.
Hubby's result were likely enough to get their attention and put him on the fast track for equipment.
Glad you got rid of the PITA DME. Feels good doesn't it?

I'm thinking it must have been pretty bad too for things to move this quickly. It took over 2 months for me from sleep study to machine.

I've known he has sleep apnea for YEARS but he refused to get tested. I think watching me go through this process made him realize it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be because when I told him last month that I was going to mention it at his doctor's appointment he didn't fight me this time. Or maybe the years and years of lousy sleep finally wore him down...

It will feel REALLY good to be done with the PITA DME. I think I'll be doing the happy dance after I drop off the S9 to them today.

Sharrykb wrote:one doctor being out on maternity leave

Sharrykb wrote:for things to move this quickly

I will guess that the other doctor is a man and with the woman out, he is lost and cutting corners all day long.

Be sure to get a receipt that shows you turned the S9 in to them.

The Resmed Apnealink Plus (the home sleep study machine) has a software which prints out a report within 1 minute of attaching the device to the computer. Its all automated and no one looks at the waveform manually to score events on this.

The weeks that doctors take to get back to the patient is an entirely different matter. I leave it to your imagination why they take so long.

I wish I could believe there is a correlation between the severity of apnea and the speed of action by a sleep doctor a DME. That being said - good job!

englandsf wrote:I wish I could believe there is a correlation between the severity of apnea and the speed of action by a sleep doctor a DME.

How about sleep practices hire consultants who have good success in manufacturing throughput projects to overhaul the process flow. All patients would then get quick results including therapy commencement. Also, the sleep practice's costs would decrease significantly.

Fast throughput is no mystery. But doctors seem to be willing to tolerate poor management practices.

Returned my S9 to old DME yesterday. They were stinkers and didn't want to give me much stating that I had returned the equipment and that I no longer had any of their equipment but I did finally win that argument.

Walked in to new DME and hubby and I both walked out with new ResMed AirSense 10 AUTOSETs. Extremely painless process. And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the new DME's parent company will not allow them to use the modem or wireless capabilities at all on these machines because they aren't convinced it is as "secure" as ResMed claims. She said the "downside" to that is that I will periodically need to bring in the SD cards so they can read the data. Guess that's a small price to pay for knowing they aren't accessing the machines and changing the settings without our knowledge.

Haven't looked at our data yet on Sleepyhead as I don't seem to have the version that works with these new machines.

Sharrykb wrote: She said the "downside" to that is that I will periodically need to bring in the SD cards so they can read the data. Guess that's a small price to pay for knowing they aren't accessing the machines and changing the settings without our knowledge.

They can change your settings from the card. After they read your cards, ask them if they changed any settings. Then when you get home, check all the settings.

Sharrykb wrote: Guess that's a small price to pay for knowing they aren't accessing the machines and changing the settings without our knowledge.

you can put the as10 machines in 'airplane mode', which disables the cell modem.

Therapist wrote:

Sharrykb wrote: She said the "downside" to that is that I will periodically need to bring in the SD cards so they can read the data. Guess that's a small price to pay for knowing they aren't accessing the machines and changing the settings without our knowledge.

They can change your settings from the card. After they read your cards, ask them if they changed any settings. Then when you get home, check all the settings.

Thank you for telling me that! I did not know they could change the settings using the card. Now that I know, I will watch out for that. I'm okay with changing settings if there's a good reason for it and they tell me they are doing it. I just don't want them changing something without me knowing what and why.

I monitor my brother in laws PRS1 560.
I have a spare card I put in his machine when I visit. I bring my card home put it in my computer and generate the reports in Encore, since his doctor doesn't speak SleepyHead. I save a PDF of the reports and email to his doctor.
Doc and I communicate to determine any needed changes. Now I need to find a 2 x 4 to hit BIL with to get him on track using his machine and learning to sleep at night, rather than napping all day without the machine.

You should be able to email your reports to the DME or the insurance company too.

Sharrykb wrote:

Therapist wrote:

Sharrykb wrote: She said the "downside" to that is that I will periodically need to bring in the SD cards so they can read the data. Guess that's a small price to pay for knowing they aren't accessing the machines and changing the settings without our knowledge.

They can change your settings from the card. After they read your cards, ask them if they changed any settings. Then when you get home, check all the settings.

Thank you for telling me that! I did not know they could change the settings using the card. Now that I know, I will watch out for that. I'm okay with changing settings if there's a good reason for it and they tell me they are doing it. I just don't want them changing something without me knowing what and why.

Do you use SleepyHead or ResScan? Copy the entire SD card over to your computer before you send it in, and name the directory created with today's date. That way you can go back and read your old data at any time in case they lose your card, erase it, or give you the wrong card back.

If you don't want them tinkering with your pressure settings, you can format the card they give you on your PC before you put it in your CPAP machine.

Respironics software can "lock down" the SD card settings where you can't easily change them, but as far as I know, ResMed SD cards only set the machine settings the first time you put it into the machine after the card is programmed. SleepyHead records the settings you use, so if they change it, you'll have a record of the previous settings.

Sharrykb wrote:Thank you for telling me that! I did not know they could change the settings using the card. Now that I know, I will watch out for that. I'm okay with changing settings if there's a good reason for it and they tell me they are doing it. I just don't want them changing something without me knowing what and why.

With Sleepyhead, you can easily see any RX changes on the machine in the statistics page. Like:



Pink shows the current RX. You can see that I made a change after 83 days and have been using that new setting for 3 days now.

If a change is made without your knowledge, or if you want to make an adjustment, you can do so from the clinicians menu very easily.