I believe there is a place for someone being trained on the job, but medicine is not that place. I am sure this statement will make many of my readers unhappy with me. But there are too many issues that cannot be taught while you are working and too many theories that need to be taught in a learning environment. We are dealing with people’s lives; ...

The other day I had to work part of a night shift with two of my technicians. We had a patient that may have needed a little extra care, and I felt that another person might help to run the study better. When I got home, I posted on Facebook how impressed I was with the technicians I worked with. They really understand that they're on the ...

Many sleep technicians don't know how insurance works. They don't understand what insurances cover and which insurances need authorizations before giving equipment or performing tests. To them, this is an issue just for the billing office and the scheduling desk. I have found that the more I understand about our field and the way we are paid, the ...

The best time of the year for teaching sleep is Sleep Tech Appreciation Week, Oct. 4-10. My goal is to inform doctors and the community that walking around tired all the time is not normal.The AAST has a page dedicated to Sleep Tech Appreciation Week. On it you will see how others have celebrated, activities such as a crossword and word search, a ...

I've been involved in sleep for the past 10 years, and I can tell you that I still measure every patient's head when I do a setup. My setups take between 45 minutes and an hour. I have never really gotten much faster than that. I think it's because I really believe that if you take your time and measure and clean the sites well, you will get the ...

The RPSGT and CPSGT exams have gone to on-demand testing. This is a great thing because for the past two tests it took more than three months to get the results. However, this change came with an increase in the test of $100. This price increase along with the cost of the A-STEP is making it financially stressful for many people to take the ...

Growing up, I was taught you always want to act like you run the business you work for. You want it to be successful, profitable, and have a great reputation. I always have taken that to heart. Yet now as I am getting close to another birthday, I wonder if this belief, which I have shared with my children, is truly worth some of the things I have ...

I have mentioned before that I want to get involved with sleep and respiratory on a larger scale. Well, the opportunity hit me a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to attend the tri-county school board meeting. In attendance were representatives from the two community colleges, the area university, the local hospitals, a community member, ...

Those of us who have been in the field for any length of time know that people who drive for a living have a higher than average chance of a sleep disorder. That's why the Sleep Apnea & Trucking Conference being held May 11-12 in Baltimore is so exciting. The conference, organized by the American Sleep Apnea Association and co-sponsored by the ...

The New Year always starts the same way: diets, deductibles, and resolutions. For me, I start my new year looking at what I learned and what I need to improve. I look at the books I read, the seminars I attended, the people I have met, and then I say what I want to add on to my knowledge base. I have read a great deal about business this past ...