December 11, 2009

Palos Community Hospital Opens New Sleep Disorders Center

Palos Community Hospital is working to help patients who have a problem sleeping. The hospital recently celebrated the opening of its Sleep Disorders Center, located at the southwest corner of Southwest Highway and Route 83 in Palos Park.

Patients of the Sleep Disorders Center arrive after 8 p.m. and are assigned to a private room with a queen sized-bed. Monitors are placed on the patient to observe the sleep cycle, oxygen levels, interruptions, as well as other measures. In the morning, patients leave the center and resume their daytime routines, while the results of the study are reviewed by physicians with special training in sleep medicine. Afterward, they will discuss their recommendations with the primary care physician, who will follow up with any necessary treatment.

"We are very excited to have this sleep disorders center, which will allow us to better serve our patients," says David Manchester, vice president of Professional Services. "This facility and the affiliated physicians are critical in understanding, diagnosing, and treating patients living with sleep disorders."

The National Institutes of Health reports that up to one in eight Americans have trouble sleeping due to insomnia, snoring, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, periodic limb movement and narcolepsy.

For information on a sleep study, call (888) SLEEP77.