March 2017 Department Discovery: Sleep Center

The March 2017 Department Discovery shines a light on the Sleep Center!

Did you know that an estimated 123 million American suffer from sleep-related problems? In fact, nearly two thirds of all adults experience insufficient sleep three or more times per week. Campbell County Health’s Sleep Center at Campbell County Memorial Hospital is designed to monitor and evaluate people during sleep, providing information for physicians to diagnose and treat sleeping disorders in Gillette, Wyoming. For those who don’t know, the Sleep Center is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and is one of three accredited programs in the state of Wyoming.

“We don’t just perform sleep studies for the purpose of diagnosis,” says coordinator Dessie Hoxie. “We provide full continuity of sleep health care from diagnosis, to treatment, and sleep health follow-up.”

CCH's Sleep Center is specially designed for sleep studies and provides a full range of diagnostic and treatment for more than 70 different sleep disorders. The most commonly treated sleep disorders are:

• snoring
• sleep apnea
• insomnia
• restless legs syndrome
• and shift work disorder

Left untreated, sleep disorders can lead to serious health conditions like weight gain, high blood pressure, cardiac problems, diabetes, and increased risk of motor vehicle accidents.

The Sleep Center is staffed by eight Registered Polysomnographic Technicians and Respiratory Therapists, who assist the doctor in making a diagnosis. While patients sleep in quiet, comfortable rooms, our technologists observe and record sleep patterns, heart and respiratory activity, and body movements at an adjacent monitoring room. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively once they have been accurately diagnosed.

The staff at the Sleep Center is currently working with an interim Sleep Medical Director, Dr. Robert Finley from Rapid City, to ensure all sleep patient referrals are provided sleep health management. Dr. Finley is in Gillette weekly to provide sleep study follow-up appointments and new patient evaluations.

“The staff at the Sleep Center strives to give 100 percent to our patients, and our co-workers,” says Dessie. “The best thing about our department is our teamwork—we work well together, communicate well, anticipate our patients’ needs and proactively find the solution that is best for them. I’m proud of this team.”

The Sleep Center is the only four-bed clinic in a 100-mile radius, which accepts insurance and Medicare patients. It is open six nights per week for patient convenience, and operated according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine standards. The Center performs an average of 80 sleep studies per month.

A big round of applause to the Sleep Center team! Thank you for all that you do in keeping our community healthy, and well rested. Learn more about the Sleep Center at www.cchwyo.org/sleep.