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Poll: Rate the Health Care Professional who deals with your Sleep Disorders
This poll is closed.
I am impressed with my Physician
13.70%
10 13.70%
I am not impressed with my Physician
5.48%
4 5.48%
My Physician is only ‘so-so’
6.85%
5 6.85%
I regret my selection of a Physician
1.37%
1 1.37%
My questions and concerns are promptly addressed
17.81%
13 17.81%
Appointments are obtained within a week
8.22%
6 8.22%
Appointments take a reasonable time
10.96%
8 10.96%
Appointment a month or more out are commonplace
8.22%
6 8.22%
As a whole I am impressed
16.44%
12 16.44%
As a whole I am unimpressed
10.96%
8 10.96%
Total 73 vote(s) 100%
* You voted for this item. [Show Results]

Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
#11
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
I was in the hospital this year. I felt all the Doctors, Nurses, and other Techs were very dedicated as is my family Doctor. Now the Sleep Lab and personnel not so much. As far as DME's I don't consider them part of the medical profession. They're on the same level as used car sales people. Well OK I apologize to the used car people.
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#12
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
SHa_clap2YES!
(11-16-2017, 06:36 PM)Walla Walla Wrote: I was in the hospital this year. I felt all the Doctors, Nurses, and other Techs were very dedicated as is my family Doctor. Now the Sleep Lab and personnel not so much. As far as DME's I don't consider them part of the medical profession. They're on the same level as used car sales people. Well OK I apologize to the used car people.
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#13
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
We have private insurance companies here, the biggest is the worst when it comes to paying out for Sleep Apnea.
Maybe I should say was!  I spoke to someone that was insured with them and they couldn't do enough to help.
But I hear you over there with your DMEs wanting big profits and yes I di understand DMEs are not the insurance companies, but over here they pay the bills direct to the hospital, be it a private hospital of NHS one.
Less people involved the better.  DMEs like used can salesmen!  Yikes! Rolleyes  You can keep them over there, we don't want them!   Shy
I am NOT a doctor.  I try to help, but do not take what I say as medical advice.


Every journey, however large or small starts with the first step.

Sleep-well
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#14
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
I love my primary care nurse practitioner.
She freely admits she knows nothing about cpap, writes a script for what I need and writes my annual recert.

That's all the medical meddling l need or want involved in my apnea treatment.
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#15
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
(11-16-2017, 05:32 PM)srlevine1 Wrote: Do you see disruption as disintermediation of the DME in favor of manufacturer-Amazon-Consumer logistics?
Do you see disruption as more home testing in the absence of severe co-morbidities?
I would like to know your vision for disruption.

I'm basing this on the posts I read here and not here.  My own experience was pretty good, but obviously not the norm.  Sleep was torture.  Now is bliss.  

1.  The doctors that can prescribe are disconnected, misinformed, and apathetic.  
2.  The DME's are a disaster.  Seriously, mine has to be 1 in 100.  
3.  The insurance companies spend way too much for equipment, services, and medical conditions related to untreated OSA.  Would they be interested in a solution that saves them billions and makes the general population healthier?  Of course.  
4.  There is a vital community of informed experts who know more than the doctors and DME's.  These people are better and cheaper.  That's is the secret sauce for disruption.  
5.  The market is huge.  OSA is massively underdiagnosed.  There are tons of people who snore and are tired all the time, including my wife and son.  OSA is one of the easiest conditions to diagnose and should be the first thing checked, not the last.  


I envision a network of experts that use home study tests, inexpensive data-capable equipment, and the internet to provide top-quality diagnoses of OSA, or not.  Sleeprider and some other real experts here and elsewhere tell people all the time they don't have OSA based on Sleepyhead data and that they should look elsewhere for their fatigue issues.  On the other hand, the same experts help guide individuals to machine settings that optimize therapy and let them find satisfying, effective, and blessed sleep.  

Do you think the insurance companies would be interested in a treatment that improves on the current 40% success rate with CPAP, would be a massive PR win, and save them money to boot?  I do.  This is a ridiculously low-hanging fruit that needs to be plucked.  

Sorry for the hijack.
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#16
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
I think my sleep doctor is a pretty sharp guy. He comes out of the Stanford Sleep clinic, and I believe he knows his stuff. That said I think he has a huge patient load and works within a system that attempts to keep costs down.

Just last Friday, we had the 30 follow-up phone call to discuss my new ASV machine. He was thrilled with the progress and the settings that Sleeprider helped me dial-in.

During the call, I thanked him for facilitating the ASV. He--quite modestly--said, "you don't need to thank me, you came in knowing exactly what you needed."

And I guess that was really true. From following my data in Sleepyhead, reading the forum almost daily, and getting help from many (and especially from Sleeprider), I had the knowledge-base to get a solution that is turning my life around.

I'm grateful to the doctor for his help. But I do not think I'd have reached this solution with Apnea Board and our fine contributors to this forum.

So this Thanksgiving, I have you all to thank!

Bill
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#17
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
The sleep specialist I saw was pleasant enough but not convinced I needed CPAP  because I had two sleep studies, one showed borderline mild/moderate (AHI 16) and the next  one about 9 months later indicated AHI 3 (sub optimal sleep), this was after 10% weight loss. 


If I had shown the slightest reluctance to use CPAP I know she would have told me not to bother with it, that I didn't have OSA, she seemed reluctant to prescribe because my oxygen levels were not bad. 

I'm not really sure how to rate her, I only saw her twice and she handed me a prescription and told me that she doesn't need to see me again.

So I've basically treated myself monitoring data in SH and tweaking settings. 

Mainly thanks to forums like this one I figured it out and now sleep well on CPAP every night. 

So .... I don't think my sleep specialist was of any use at all other than getting a prescription from her.
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#18
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
Well, my primary doc is supportive but tells me rather upfront, (appreciate his honesty) it's not his field of expertise so he will defer to my pulmonary doctor(s).

The first pulmonary doc knew the basics, but was too stubborn to admit his limitations and wasn't willing to discuss options. At the end, after lots of lobbing complaints to him, he was swayed just enough to get me onto an ASV machine.

Next chapter of pulmonary doc starts after Christmas. Doc 2 replaced doc 1 who has retired.

DME: Corp level gets an average rating. Too much phone relay to various departments for me. Customer Service is also average, but some are real good. But others sound like they have yet to pass training. On the local RT area, slightly above average, mostly because we don't need to deal with them a lot. Specifically, the one woman uses CPAP herself, so she tends to have an understanding that I'm the patient and let's me take the lead for myself. Fine by me actually.

That pretty much sums up my 
non-detailed assessing of the group I deal with.

Dave B
Coffee
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#19
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
Why does everyone hold their thoughts so close to the vest?   No one is going to tell your doctor on you.  Eat-popcorn
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#20
RE: Rating your Sleep Physician or Health Care Professional
Maybe most of us don't think we have a sleep physician... I saw mine when we looked over my first sleep test, then after the titration when he gave me a prescription, then six months later for first review. I showed him my SleepyHead stats, and he said all those numbers just confuse most people... Then he moved away to the next suburb (too far for no car) without telling me... I know where the rest of the clinic partners moved, but why bother?
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