Good Sleep Hygiene

Oxygen Cylinder Duration App Review

A few weeks ago I was told about a new app that calculates oxygen tank durations. Immdeitely thinking it would help me, I pulled out my phone, went to the app store and downloaded it. The name of the app is O2 to Go. It's put out by Responsive Respiratory. Responsive primarily manufactures oxygen tank regulators. As the app was downloading, I thought to myself "I'll never again be scrambling for a tank chart or trying to make some crazy calculation based on tank volume". As I would soon discover there was a slight problem with this theory. Using charts and doing calculations was all I knew. After nearly 6 years in the industry those things have been ingrained in me. Basically what happened was two minutes after I would figure out how much O2 a patient had remaining I would remember the app. That being said let me tell you about the app.

The O2 to Go app has four tabs on the bottom labeled; home, equipment, cyl-fil system and contact us. If you're going to use this app on a regular basis the home tab is where you're going to live. No pun intended. The equipment and cyl-fil tabs basically advertise Responsive's product line. I will say rather unobtrusively for a free app. The contact us tab is self explanatory.

The home tab is the tank duration calculator. The calculator asks you to make selections in four categories. First being O2 device. The O2 device is the regulator type. For example, a 5:1 ratio or a pedi regulator. The second category is liter flow. The liter flow options will change based on what "O2 device" is selected. The third and fourth categories are cylinder size and cylinder % full. I'm impressed with the amount of options in the cylinder size section. They have a couple tank sizes that I've never seen before. Cylinder % full keeps is simple. The options are; full, 75%, 50%, and 25%. The down side to keeping it simple is when a patient tells you they have a third of a tank left. This did happen to me. So I simply rounded down to 25%. When the tank lasts a little longer, the patient will be happy.

A couple of side notes. You must fill the first category to fill the second and so on. The results of the calculation will automatically appear in a blue box labeled Cylinder Duration. The app is available for iphone and android. Just search Responsive Respiratory in the App Store or Android Market. As you may have guessed I did break my habit of looking at charts. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think of the app.

Reviewed By

Dana Lesperance

North East Sleep Society Meeting 2011 with Pictures

Hello

We at Absolute Respiratory Care would like to thank everyone who stopped by our booth at NESS this past Friday and Saturday. It was great meeting so many people who are as passionately involved in the sleep industry as we are. Some of the people we met and spoke with were from Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and New York. All of the New England states were well represented, including many familiar faces from "lil' Rhody". Certainly we all know how valuable continued education is. The conversations we had about everything from patient care to random tricks of the trade are truly priceless. I know we will be adding a few of your tips to our repertoire. Hopefully some of you gained a tidbit or two from us as well. If you got your picture taken with the hand mask, thanks for being a good sport! Scroll down and find yourself.

Thanks,

Dana Lesperance

Medicare Coverage Guidelines For Sleep Therapy Change Again.

Medicare has recently changed the guidelines for continued coverage on sleep therapy equipment. Most of us are familiar with the coverage guidelines instituted by Medicare a while back. If your not familiar or just forgot here is the gist of it. Sleep Therapy patients must use their cpap 4 hours a night, 70% of nights within a 30 day period. Compliance reports are generated by the patients cpap machine that show if the patient has in fact used their machine enough to qualify for continued coverage. They also must have a face to face visit with their physician during the second or third month after being set up. During the visit the physician must document an improvement of symptoms. This process can be challenging for patients because it needs to be done within 90 days.
This is where the new piece to the coverage guidelines comes in. If a sleep therapy patient doesn't meet the above stated criteria and wishes to continue trying cpap they must go for another sleep study. The reasoning behind the new study is to help determine why the patient was unable to become compliant within in the 90 days. Secondly new findings may be made after the new study that could lead to a different form of treatment like Bilevel.

Community Outreach Help From 2-1-1

There is a great program in our area called 2-1-1. It's a toll free multilingual service provided by the United Way. When you call 2-1-1 you can get a variety of information that can help you in every day life or during a crisis. 2-1-1 is in operation 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The vast amount of services you can get connected to include; Alzheimer's resources, child care services, disability services, health care, legal assistance, senior services and volunteering. For a full list of services call 2-1-1 or visit www.211ri.org if you are in Rhode Island. In Massachusetts call 2-1-1 or visit www.mass211.org. In Connecticut call 2-1-1 or visit www.211ct.org. Thanks for reading I hope you can utilize the 2-1-1 at some point. The
2-1-1 truly is a great way to get connected and get answers.

Post By
Dana Lesperance

Breathing Difficulties

Don't Let Humidification Issues Rain on Your Parade

As summer comes to and end two things come to mind, football and humidifier settings. Now that Tom Brady is back and feeling better I’m feeling better about the chances of making it back to the Superbowl. My thoughts are also with all of my friends using their cpap and bilevel machines faithfully every night. As the nights start to get cooler and the air is drying out some the humidifier settings that had been good all summer long are no longer working for everyone. This is a common event that occurs during the change of season. Some simple adjustments can be made to the humidifier settings to help make the transition smoothly into the fall and winter seasons.

If you are suddenly getting excess water in the tubing, hear gurgling and your face or and pillow are wet in the morning, turn your humidifier down. The setting is too high and the water is starting to pool. If you feel like you are suddenly getting a cold in the morning, your nose is stuffy and dry or worse you have a small nose bleed, turn your humidifier up. The air from your machine does not have enough moisture and you are drying out your nasal passages. This tends to be the bigger problem in the cooler months when the air is much dryer, so more moisture is needed. Some other tips for adding moisture is to use water based lubricants right on the inside of your nares. KY-Jelly, Surgi-Lube or any WATER based lubricants will work wonders. Do NOT use petroleum based jelly!!! Not only is bad for your mask, it also can be harmful if it gets into your lungs. There are also tubing wraps available that insulate the 6ft tube and help eliminate the "rainout" or extra condensation in the tubing.

These few simple tips are usually enough to keep everyone free from humidification issues during he change in seasons. If you do have any other problems or concerns that have not been answered, please give us a call. Our goal is to help everyone sleep well all night, every night!

Jessica Connetti CRT