For Professionals

Who to refer

Our pulmonary sleep providers specialize in managing patients with disorders of hypoventilation and chronic respiratory failure. These patients include:

• obesity hypoventilation syndrome
• chronic respiratory failure from neuromuscular disease
• advanced COPD
• patients with multiple hospital admissions for respiratory failure
• patients with sleep apnea who are intolerant to CPAP or who have underlying pulmonary disease

We often comanage complex pulmonary patients with severe underlying COPD, history of lung, heart or liver transplant with the patient’s primary care provider, pulmonologist, or specialty care provider.

We are able to augment clinical decision making with patient centered testing for patients with complex OSA and comorbid disorders of hypoventilation. Once a patient is recognized to have severe sleep disordered breathing or chronic respiratory failure, we identify a personalized ventilatory and pulmonary clearance and recruitment strategy based on the patient’s underlying disease and comorbid conditions.

If necessary, we then perform in person mask fittings, and titrations of positive airway pressure therapy and pulmonary clearance strategies, including evaluation of cough, and cough assist (hyperlink). These titrations are important to ensure patient tolerance and therapeutic success.