University Hospitals Geneva Medical Center Expands Sleep Study Access for Pediatric and At-Home Patients

ASHTABULA COUNTY—The Center for Advanced Sleep Medicine at University Hospitals (UH) Geneva Medical Center, which held its grand opening in October of 2020 and has now been seeing patients for a year, has implemented a brand new, integrated software system to improve access, efficiency and quality in sleep services for patients.

The state-of-the-art software, called Polysmith Sleep Systems, is fully integrated with UH electronic medical records, which improves overall quality of studies and efficiencies so data can be shared across the ten locations. The new software allows sleep specialists to study pediatric patients ages six and older, and expands access for at-home sleep studies to gather immediate results. UH Geneva’s software system recently launched, and all UH sleep centers will have the new software implemented by November of this year.

“Having a sleep center within the Geneva community provides sleep medicine services right at the hospital, allowing patients to stay close to home and be at ease as they go through the study process,” said Susheel Patil, MD, System Director for UH Sleep Medicine. “We’re looking forward to being able to provide even more services to patients in the area as we expand access to pediatric patients and enhance our at-home studies with this new software system.”

Dr. Patil emphasized that each location used to work with their own software which was time consuming; now UH sleep centers are on the same page and speaking the same language across the board.

“Primary care and specialty physicians, as well as nurse practitioners, can refer patients to the UH Geneva Center for Advanced Sleep Medicine for testing,” explained UH Geneva Sleep Lab Supervisor Sarah Tracy, RPSGT. “We receive a lot of referrals from cardiologists for patients with undiagnosed sleep apnea as well. Patients come to us for a variety of undiagnosed disorders including insomnia, restless leg syndrome, acting out scenarios during sleep--which we call parasomnia--and sleep walking. Our lab has a full team of sleep technologists who are trained to perform both daytime and nighttime studies depending on the shifts patients work and when they’re hoping to improve their sleep quality.”

Depending on the patient, some cases only require one consultation for a diagnosis and treatment plan to be formulated. In most cases, a treatment plan involves a diagnostic sleep study—some can be done at the sleep lab while others can be done at the patient’s home.

During in-lab sleep studies, patients are monitored by noninvasive, painless technology to see what types of physiological signs are exhibited during the different stages of sleep. Measurements include airflow monitoring, brain wave activity, heart rhythm, pulse oximetry to check oxygen status, and muscle tone and activity.

The UH Geneva Center for Advanced Sleep Medicine has been completely renovated, offering four remodeled bedrooms with private bathrooms, free Wi-Fi, cable TVs and queen size beds. The center also has its own dedicated parking area for patients. To help fall asleep easily, patients can bring their own pillows, stuffed animals and even bedtime snacks if they are a normal part of their routine.