Multidisciplinary sleep centers: Strategies to improve care of sleep disorders patients

Abstract

Current emphasis on patient outcomes within sleep medicine, with a particular focus on quality improvement and contained costs, calls for sleep specialists to develop innovative models for long-term care and management of sleep disorders patients. Multidisciplinary sleep centers can facilitate highest-quality care that is timely and cost-effective. Effective resource use in a multidisciplinary sleep center can help minimize fragmentation of care, reduce effort duplication, and control costs. Proposed strategies to help achieve a balance between quality of care and cost-effectiveness include: (1) multidisciplinary specialty clinics, (2) optimized use of information technology, and (3) adoption of reliable performance measures.