What’s CPAP Compliance?
Sleep apnea is a medical condition which results in periods of breathlessness throughout the night. These moments without breath mean moments without oxygen and untreated sleep apnea increases your risk of developing serious heart disease. Fortunately, the treatment for sleep apnea, known as continuous positive airway pressure therapy, stops sleep apnea related symptoms and reduces your risk of having co-occurring medical problems.
What’s Compliance?
Doctors, and often insurance companies, look at a patient’s compliance with therapy throughout treatment. A compliant CPAP user takes advantage of their CPAP every night and uses it for several hours.
Doctors monitor compliance because they know that sticking with CPAP therapy isn’t always easy. While we may know the benefits of sleep apnea treatment, only about half of people who are prescribed this treatment actually stick to it.
Compliance Isn’t Always Easy
At Advanced Sleep Therapy, we’ve got an eye for things that may make compliance difficult. A poorly fitting mask, using a CPAP machine without a “ramp feature,” or neglecting to add a humidifier to your CPAP system make committing to your treatment difficult. We’ve got a group of specialized health care professionals who are practiced in solving these problems. We’ll direct you to the right CPAP supplies and skills for caring for your CPAP so that compliance is easy.
Telemonitoring May Improve Compliance
Telemonitoring software allows you to track your CPAP treatment progress from the palm of your hand. Smartphone apps like myAir Health and U Sleep deliver data to you and your physician if they’ve been given permission. This data includes the number of episodes without breath, the presence of air leaks in your mask, and hours of CPAP machine use practiced each evening.
Those who have developed these apps and the CPAP machines they’re associated with, say that they ensure better sleep apnea treatment compliance. Patients suffering from the sleep disorder experience more effective treatment and are easily able to discuss compliance issues with their health care providers.
You can find CPAP machines equipped with telemonitoring capabilities on Breatheeasycpap.com. Established medical supply companies like RedMed and Philips Respironics are improving technology to monitor compliance and CPAP design to improve user comfort with every new machine or smartphone application that they create. Visit our online storefront today to not only start CPAP therapy but to fully commit to it.
