PEMBROKE – MedSleep, one of Canada’s leading providers of comprehensive diagnosis and integrated treatment for sleep disorders, announced today that it will be opening its new sleep medicine facility at the Pembroke Regional Hospital this spring.
To help meet an increasing demand for such services in this part of Renfrew County, the sleep clinic which will house a three-bed sleep lab will open in May at the Ottawa Valley Health and Wellness Centre.
Sabine Mersmann, Vice-President of Patient Services – Seniors and Community Care at Pembroke Region Hospital (PRH) said MedSleep will be the only sleep medicine clinic between Renfrew and North Bay and will require physician referral for all consultations and diagnostics.
“Being able to offer sleep lab services to those in our region with sleep disorders has long been a goal of our hospital, so we are very happy to be able to provide this service to those in this part of our region,” Ms. Mersmann said, adding that sleep disorders can contribute to a variety of chronic conditions, illnesses, and complications.
Some of the most common sleep disorders include obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, and restless leg syndrome.
Each year, it is estimated that 200,000 car accidents are sleep related. If left untreated, a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnea can contribute to fatigue and daytime sleepiness, hypertension, adverse cardiac events, stroke, diabetes, obesity, depression and increased post-operative complications.
Sleep medicine is a specialty devoted to the management of medical conditions which impact sleep and daytime wakefulness.
“We are very excited to be bringing our comprehensive and integrated sleep disorder treatment to the north Renfrew County community. We know it will make a real and positive impact on the health and safety of the community,” said Kostas Tsambourlianos
MedSleep’s Chief Operating Officer.
“MedSleep’s approach is driven by the principles of quality, patient-focused care and accessibility. We pride ourselves on being one of the pioneers in sleep medicine utilizing the latest in technology and promoting education in the areas of sleep that will promote a healthy lifestyle,” Mr. Tsambourlianos said.
Some of the services which will be offered include clinical assessment, treatment and follow-up by a sleep medicine physician, as well as diagnostic sleep testing. MedSleep will be run as an ambulatory clinic during the day with overnight sleep studies.
Pembroke Regional Hospital President and CEO Pierre Noel said that sleep studies are important, particularly when it comes to patients with sleep disorders who must undergo lengthy surgeries such as those for orthopaedics.
“Having this service available will be a good complementary service to our upcoming orthopaedics program and we are very happy to have been able to bring MedSleep to the Pembroke area and offer this new service to those waiting for assessment in this part of the county,” Mr. Noel said.
