Portable Sleep Studies
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Portable Sleep Studies
In order to get a Medicare rebate on a sleep study you require a referral from GP or specialist to Health Dynamics. This must have some completed questionnaires. If you score 4 or more in the STOP BANG questionnaire AND 8 or more in the ESS questionnaire and have a referral from your GP, you are a suitable candidate to have a sleep study without seeing a sleep physician first. A score of up to 10 is considered as being in the normal range for the ESS. Once we receive the questionnaires with your referral we will book your appointment for a study (provided you meet the above criteria), or else we will suggest a consultation with one of our sleep physicians.
Pensioners are currently not able to access government funded CPAP units in southern Tasmania with our service; however we do have other options available so please contact our office to discuss.
Sleep studies, otherwise known as “diagnostic sleep studies” are very important tools to determine the nature and the level of severity of a patient’s condition.
For more information, call 1800-HEALTH to speak to our staff, to arrange a diagnostic sleep study or request detailed information.
The home sleep study
Until now, sleep studies could only be carried out in an ‘attended’ setting, typically in a hospital based sleep unit, where trained sleep scientists observe the patient throughout the entire night. Now in a sleep study can be done using a portable diagnostic recorder.
Lately we have upgraded our portable recording devices. These latest portable recorders allow the patient to sleep in the comfort and privacy of their own bedroom. Besides being less daunting and less expensive, these studies also provide a more typical sleeping environment for the sleep study to be carried out in.
Our sleep studies are scored and reported by local sleep scientists and sleep physicians to get highly detailed and correct results possible.
Most of the cost of the sleep study is covered by Medicare, provided you are eligible (see above). If you have been referred by a doctor for a sleep study, contact us on 1800-HEALTH to arrange an appointment, and have the home sleep study unit fitted by a sleep therapist.
Usually patients are connected to the recording device by our trained staff. Sometimes as a result of conditions such as remoteness, patients have to set themselves up.
