June 5, 2006 HealthPartners opens sleep health center in Maplewood facility is largest of its kind in east metro and western Wisconsin June 5, 2006 BLOOMINGTON, Minn., – Amid growing awareness of the importance of sleep to many aspects of overall health, HealthPartners today announced the opening of a new 7,000 square-foot Sleep Health Center in Maplewood – the largest facility of its kind in the east Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. The new Sleep Health Center, which opens for patient visits on Tuesday, June 6, will double the capacity of the current center located at Regions Hospital since 2003. A growing body of research associates sleep disorders with a wide range of complications including hypertension, stroke, learning problems, relationship issues and automobile accidents. The HealthPartners Sleep Health Center – a service of Regions Hospital – provides diagnoses and management of a variety of sleep disorders, including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy, shift-worker sleep problems, restless legs syndrome and other sleep-related complications. HealthPartners expects to conduct more than 2,500 nighttime sleep tests annually at the new Sleep Health Center, as well as daytime tests for shift workers and others who may require special nap tests. "We spend almost one-third of our lives sleeping, so sleep health is a very important field of medicine," said Jagdeep Bijwadia, M.D., medical director of the HealthPartners Sleep Health Center. "We know that getting enough sleep can improve a person's productivity, reduce stress and irritability, and affect a patient's overall health. Our new Sleep Health Center will enable us to diagnose and treat a growing number of sleep-deprived individuals." "We've had tremendous success with our Sleep Health Center at Regions Hospital for several reasons – the increased need for and awareness of the benefits of sleep studies, the exceptional patient experience provided by our sleep center staff and the clinical expertise of our HealthPartners sleep specialty physicians," said Gretchen Leiterman, vice president, Regions Hospital. "Now we are expanding our program due to continually increasing demand for the service and our ability to deliver a unique clinical model to our patients. Our new, larger facility will help us to make our program even more accessible to the patients we serve in the east metro and western Wisconsin." The new Sleep Health Center features 12 sleeping rooms – each with a private bathroom and shower, a television and Select Comfort bed. Several specially equipped rooms will accommodate patients with bariatric or handicap needs. The Sleep Health Center is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and is staffed by experts trained in sleep medicine. These include certified sleep physicians, registered sleep technologists, pulmonologists, neurologists, respiratory therapists and home equipment providers. Unlike most other sleep labs where patients may wait several days or weeks for results, patients at the Sleep Health Center meet with a sleep physician the morning after their tests are conducted to review results and determine treatment. The center will also offer home equipment rental such as specialized masks, tubing and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines for patients to take home with them. Regions Hospital is a Level I trauma center and teaching hospital serving Minnesota and western Wisconsin for more than 130 years. Regions is a private hospital providing outstanding care in womens health, heart, cancer, surgery, orthopaedics, neuroscience, burn, emergency care and more. Regions is part of the HealthPartners family of care. Additional information is available at www.regionshospital.com. HealthPartners (www.healthpartners.com) is the largest consumer-governed, non-profit health care organization in the nation with commercial and Medicare Advantage plans that received the highest rating of Excellent from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Contact: Kelli Trask (651) 629-0411 pager |
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