Stuart MacKay, Niall Jefferson, Andrew Jones, Terry Sands, Charmaine Woods and Marco Raftopulous
Benefit of a Contemporary Sleep Multidisciplinary Team (MDT): Patient and Clinician Evaluation
Background and Objective: Multiple Health Care Professionals contribute to the care of the sleep disordered patient, particularly those with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). Our aim was to evaluate the usefulness of a Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) clinic (with the patient +/-family support in attendance), to both the clinician AND the patient. Methods: The utility of the clinic, in which multiple clinicians jointly review sleep disordered patients and engaged in open discussion with patients and family member(s) about all treatment modalities, was evaluated using an 18-item patient questionnaire (6 pre-clinic, 12 post-clinic questions) and a 6-item clinician questionnaire (6 post-clinic questions). At the completion of 5 consecutive (monthly) clinics, an independent clinician (not present at the clinics), synthesised the data and arranged for statistical analysis. Results: Patient understanding of options available in managing their OSA/sleep disorder increased from 20.7% to 89.7% (p<0.05), and awareness of OSA as a chronic disorder increased from 62.1% to 96.6% (p<0.05), following clinic attendance. In 31.8% of cases seen at the MDT, clinicians reported the patient did not receive the treatment expected (p<0.05), and the initial proposed management had some adjustment made in 59.7% of cases (p<0.05). Conclusions: The use of a Sleep Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) as in the model presented, appears to benefit both patients and clinicians in the management of OSA/sleep disorders.
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