Odd. After 6 mo. the sleep study people want her smart card?

dllfo · Post by **dllfo** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:18 am

Why would a sleep center want my wife's smart card after 6 months? They said they wanted the Respironics Rep there too.

They titrated her at 6.0, but she has 90% IPAPs almost twice that high. Her IPAPs were 16.5 a few days ago.

I thought I would just mail it up to them, but then again, I have nothing to gain and wonder if we have something to lose? This is the same outfit that said a cheap CPAP would do just fine for her.

Any reason I should not send them a card covering the last week?

I did have the wife drive me up there last summer, right after we demonstrated their 6.0 was about half of her IPAPs. They said they could not download it nor could they give me a blank smart card so we could be using it.

Opinions?

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:50 am

David,

I think I would call them and ask one question..... WHY?

From what I've heard, those places have a tendency not to return the cards, so I'd not send it to them.

If you've been downloading and saving the reports in .pdf files, I'd take a sample of them with you if you go there in person. Even if they COULD download the card, they'd only get a few days/nights worth of detailed data.

I doubt if they have any leverage to MAKE you do what they ask.

Good luck,

Den

CollegeGirl · Post by **CollegeGirl** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 1:41 am

I would guess it's probably just to verify compliance. Compliance data does stay on the card that long.

oldgearhead · Post by **oldgearhead** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 7:08 am

I just had the same request on Tuesday.

The office people were a bit "put out", yesterday, when I gave them six months of compliance reports, and two weeks of My Encore data, all printed out in color. However, the NP I reported to was "thrilled",
and we spent 20 minutes discussing self-treatment, cpap.com, Hybrid, and cpaptalk.com.

Take them the print outs, not the card, and ask them, "if they need anything else, you would be glad to FAX it to them".

btw - The NP was shocked to hear I bought a Hybrid in July, I got the impression she had been lied to about the availability.

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dllfo · Post by **dllfo** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 9:46 pm

Interesting idea. I had offered to email months and months of data, as much as they wanted, but they kept saying they want her card!!

This is why I thought I would check with the group here.

They are offered ten times the data they would get off the card and they still want the card.

They did not ask for my data. We both went there, so if it is compliance, I would think they would want to see mine too.

Also, why would they want to bring in a Respironics Rep????

My only guess would be that they want to discredit Encore Pro. Perhaps proving they were right. But her numbers are comparable on all three of the machines she has used.

CG, do you know how long the data stays on our cards? I have erased her card several times in the last few months. I download it on my laptop and the mainframe....then I erase them.

oldgearhead · Post by **oldgearhead** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:50 am

I download it on my laptop and the mainframe....then I erase them.

If you download the smart card data to your PC, then erase the card, the card won't have much data on it. So I would take them the card plus the printouts and order another card from cpap dot com ($10.00).

I wouldn't be too concerned unless they asked for the xPAP..

The smart card will hold serveral months of compliance data, but only 4-5 days of treatment data.

oldgearhead · Post by **oldgearhead** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:54 am

Another thought:
They may need the card and "Rep" there to try a new "script' for the xPAP.

They could very well be doing you a favor..

mattman · Post by **mattman** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:39 am

6 months is a pretty standard followup marker. They most likely just want to check compliance and see how she's doing or see if anything needs to be changed.

In other words, they are probably just trying to help.

mattman

dllfo · Post by **dllfo** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 11:57 am

They might be considering updating her files, but they haven't asked for mine and I was a couple weeks before my wife. But updating would make sense.

In their original comments, they said they were better and more accurate that any computer program. Maybe they are inviting Respironics in to educate their staff??

I think I will ask them to schedule it and I will have the wife drop me off with both of our cards, as well as my laptop, which has data back to when she started it. It might prove insightful and help us understand Respironics view of it all.