Staying in hospital and CPAP

[USMCVet]

I read Kteague's ER thread and the story was awesome!

It did bring up a question for me though. Has anyone ever had to stay at hospital overnight and for whatever reason did not have and could not get person CPAP?

Assuming they don't have your records regarding sleep apnea do they take your word for it regarding need and settings?

[RiverDave]

I've visited the ER a couple of times that turned into overnight stays. I just told them I had OSA and they provided equipment. It wasn't good equipment, but it did the job. They took my word on the settings.

[msla]

I had a TKR last November. Was told to NOT bring my CPAP since the hospital wanted to provide it and charge for the use. I told them that then I would need to have an appointment with the RT before surgery to coordinate treatment. They said that was not possible. I was not going to be under the influence of painkillers and adjust treatment. What were they planning, an auto set at 4-20? I brought mine and set it up and used it. RT came in saw it and left the room.

[chunkyfrog]

Aw, pity! Maybe you hurted his feeeeelings . . .

[Mikebear]

I've had many procedures at the hospital over the 20 years I've been on cpap. Most as out-patient. They have ALWAYS asked me to also bring my cpap machine with me, just in case. A couple times I was admitted, and they setup my personal cpap machine in the room I was placed in.

I will always bring it with me in the future, whether they ask me to or not.

I do not, and I can not sleep without it. Not even a nap.

[Okie bipap]

I took my machine with me when I had back surgery and again when I had hip replacement surgery. For the hip surgery, I also took my soft cervical collar with me. The hospital provided distilled water for me to use while I was in there. Either the nurse, or the nursing assistant would turn the machine on for me, and then turn it off in the morning since I did not have smart start enabled at that time.

[MrsRinPDX]

Thanks for the original and reply posts everyone. I find this most interesting and very important.

MrsRinPDX

[SewTired]

Unless you sound very confused or unsure, they will take your settings. Also, depending on your situation, they may not bother with a cpap at all and just watch your oxygen. If it goes too low, they give you O2. Now, you can argue that how does that help with obstructive apnea? It doesn't solve the problem but I suppose it provides a bridge. I'm a bit puzzled on that myself.

Since neither myself or my brother have an Xpap due to apnea, O2 works fine. There is only one time though he didn't have his machine and that was when they transferred him to another hospital - they told me to take the machine home and bring it the next day. When I arrived, it was obvious they gave him O2 overnight.

[Janknitz]

If you are going in for a planned hospital stay (e.g. after elective surgery) you can ask your surgeon to write an order for CPAP with the settings you want. Ideally part of the order will be "may use personal CPAP machine" but some hospitals won't allow that or they will require an inspection first to make sure your machine isn't going to blow up.

Having worked in hospitals for 20+ years my observation is that nurses aren't very well versed in the use of CPAP machines and are intimidated by them. They may refuse to set them up until "Respiratory checks it out" and that may or may not happen on a timely basis. Therefore having a trusted family member or friend do that for you if you are unable to do so yourself is a good idea. For things like this, I think it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, because if you ask, staff will almost always say no.

The other thing to think about is whether you want to take your own machine into a very dirty environment. I still would if I couldn't be assured that the hospital would have an appropriate set up for me in a timely fashion. Once you get out of a recovery room where they are not necessarily monitoring oxygen levels and you are still dealing with anesthesia and physical trauma from surgery, you may not want to also have to be dealing with apneas. Just be sure that you clean your machine well when you get home!

[chunkyfrog]

When I stayed overnight after my mastectomy, the hospital provided an S9 Autoset
--the same model machine I had used for 4.5 years previously.
I showed the RT an image on my phone of the settings screen on my Airsense 10,
and I asked him to turn on Autostart. Unfortunately, the info was on "simple",
so I had no data to record for that night.

[SeekSleep]

I had two separate hospital stays last month, one overnight where they had my wife bring my machine in for me. The second stay was for emergency surgery I was in intensive care the first 5 nights, and they insisted you had to use their machine, which as this huge thing on a cart that was far to noisy to sleep with. In addition to that noise, no matter how the nurse tried to set it, it would sound a very loud alarm and the nurse would have to come in to re-set it. Finally the doctor just had them put me on oxygen which I wasn't on at the time and my o2 level stayed okay without the machine. Once I got into a regular room they had me use my own machine, but they had a guy come in and inspect it and put a sticker on it first.

[D.H.]

I had two separate hospital stays last month, one overnight where they had my wife bring my machine in for me. The second stay was for emergency surgery I was in intensive care the first 5 nights, and they insisted you had to use their machine, which as this huge thing on a cart that was far to noisy to sleep with. In addition to that noise, no matter how the nurse tried to set it, it would sound a very loud alarm and the nurse would have to come in to re-set it. Finally the doctor just had them put me on oxygen which I wasn't on at the time and my o2 level stayed okay without the machine. Once I got into a regular room they had me use my own machine, but they had a guy come in and inspect it and put a sticker on it first.

Can you find out the title of the guy who inspected and certified it? That's probably a fairly standard hospital function if you know to ask for it. Thanks.

[Janknitz]

Can you find out the title of the guy who inspected and certified it? That's probably a fairly standard hospital function if you know to ask for it. Thanks.

It's usually the hospital "engineering staff"--a.k.a. maintenance. All they generally do is check to make sure the cord isn't frayed.

[SeekSleep]

.... Once I got into a regular room they had me use my own machine, but they had a guy come in and inspect it and put a sticker on it first.

Can you find out the title of the guy who inspected and certified it? That's probably a fairly standard hospital function if you know to ask for it. Thanks.

They simply called the guy that inspected my machine an electrician. and Janknitz hit it right on the nose in saying he basically just looked at the cord, and checked to see if it had a UL, or similar certification. He then put a little green sticker on the back to let the nursing staff know it was good to go. They also would have the "Respitory" Nurse come in to help you set it up if needed. This was at the University of Utah Hospital

The night I spent in a smaller hospital didn't have any requirements for my machine. They just asked if I needed any help setting it up, and let me know which plug to use and what stand they wanted me to put it on.