Estimating that thousands of area residents suffer sleep apnea and similar ailments, Lawrence Memorial Hospital officials are considering a partnership that would give the hospital's sleep disorders lab a permanent place of its own to bed down at night.
LMH and somniTech Inc. the company that runs the lab are working out details for a proposed partnership to create a free-standing, four-bed sleep studies lab in the new Westgate Professional Office Building at 4601 W. Sixth St. The lab would be used in treatment of sleep disorders.
The proposed lab, which could open early next year, would feature four sound-proof bedrooms with bathrooms and showers, a patient lounge and space for two technicians and equipment.
The facility would be an upgrade from the two-bed sleep lab at LMH, which lacks showers and other amenities. Patients typically must stay overnight in the lab to test for various disorders such as sleep apnea.
The lab would offer a cozy, homelike setting rather than sterile, hospital sleeping quarters while maintaining clinical standards for monitoring patients, officials said.
The new facility also would provide a permanent home for the lab something it hasn't had since it was set up at LMH in 1996. The lab has moved to several different locations in the hospital since then.
LMH currently leases space for the lab at the hospital to somniTech.
The recent proposal for a free-standing sleep lab, jointly run by LMH and somniTech, was prompted in part by pending expansion of the hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program. That expansion, slated to begin in January, will absorb the lab's current rooms.
LMH would be responsible for admitting patients and billing for services at the proposed lab, while somniTech is offering a two-year contract to provide sleep lab services.
The company based in Overland Park would construct and furnish the lab and maintain the equipment and staffing.
Sleep lab services would continue to be marketed to LMH physicians and other potential customers.
It will cost somniTech "tens of thousands of dollars" to create a fully outfitted sleep lab in the Westgate Professional Office Building, said Pam Gillis, the company's owner.
"Sleep labs are a little unique. We'll follow the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's guidelines for sleep labs. There's a lot that goes into that. It's expensive, but it's well worth it," she said.
The shell of the office building has already been constructed.
There appears to be need for a larger, better-equipped sleep lab in Lawrence.
Since 1996, there has been a 209 percent increase in the number of sleep studies done by somniTech in the lab at LMH with a 26 percent increase in the last year alone, according to Drs. Lida Osbern and L. Elaine Kennedy of the Reed Medical Group, 404 Maine.
Osbern and Kennedy interpret sleep tests performed in the lab and also make treatment recommendations.
Patients need referral from their primary-care physicians to have a sleep study conducted at LMH.
The hospital estimates that 3,200 people who use services offered by LMH could have sleep apnea and that 8,400 people in the hospital's service area could suffer from the disorder.
The sleep lab is averaging 45 patients a month, 96 percent of whom are outpatients, hospital officials said.
Osbern and Kennedy made the initial proposal to the LMH board of trustees to consider creating a permanent, free-standing sleep lab through a partnership with somniTech.
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