Abstract
Introduction The Children’s Sleep and Respiratory Centre performed an audit of the efficacy of its home respiratory polygraphy service in 2021. This revealed a large degree of failures was prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cerebral palsy (CP) and those aged <5 years.1 2
The findings from this audit led to the development of a pre-sleep study acclimatisation service (P-SSAS) with a new planned referral pathway to minimise failures of home and in-patient studies due to tolerance (figure 1).
The aim was to perform a follow-up audit questionnaire to measure success and efficacy of the P-SSAS and to identify possible areas of improvement.
Patient pathway for pre-sleep study acclimatisation service (P-SSAS)
Method Parent/guardian/patient satisfaction and feedback were measured and collated via a survey.
Results Results indicated that P-SSAS was effective in reducing failure rates with 18 (85.7%) out 21 patients audited having a successful study following the implementation of acclimatisation techniques.
In addition to this 90.5% of families would recommend acclimatisation to others whilst the remaining 9.5% were unsure; these were those where acclimatisation had not been effective in preventing a failed study. Tolerance issues still remained for the majority of studies that failed.
Qualitative results indicated that families found the acclimatisation process helpful in terms of allowing the child to become used to the equipment prior to the sleep study.
Results of the survey revealed that patients 68% of families found the social story, 58% found the dummy sensors and 100% found the support calls effective.
Discussion Allowing time for P-SSAS is key in enhancing adherence and success in those with ASD and ADHD as issues with sensory processing are frequently documented2.
Further auditing needs to continue to increase sample size. This will improve reliability of data and further enable identification of improvement as well as assessing areas of success.
References
Jones S, Hanwell R, Chowdhury T, Orgill J, van den Eshof K, Farquar M, Joseph D, Gringras P, Trucco F. Feasibility and parental perception of home sleep studies during COVID-19: a tertiary sleep centre experience. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2022;107:189–191.
Pratt K, Baird G, Gringras P. Ensuring successful admission to hospital for young people with learning difficulties, autism and challenging behaviour: a continuous quality improvement and change management programme. Child Care Health Dev 2012;38:789–97.
