| Posted June 11, 2014 | By Melonee Hurt | Categorized under WMC Happenings |

The Sleep Center at Williamson Medical Center, led by Aaron Milstone, M.D., has received accreditation by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The process of becoming an accredited sleep center has taken two years for Milstone and the team at Williamson Medical Center.

In order to be accredited, Milstone said a sleep facility has to meet all of the academy's standards, including a higher level of skill by the technicians, a quality assurance plan in place and all of the patients being treated with evidence-based practice parameters.

According to the AASM website, accreditation is the gold standard by which the medical community and the public can evaluate sleep medicine services.

"The reason this accreditation is so critical to us is that third-party payers may not reimburse for sleep studies that are not accredited," said Milstone, Sleep Center medical director. "It certainly affects our bottom dollar because someone might not come to WMC if we aren't accredited."

He said this process has been arduous, but that he and the staff are all very excited.

"This is really going to be great for us and for the Medical Center," he said. "I am excited for the future, because I am confident the accreditation will mean more patients being referred to WMC."

This accreditation makes Williamson Medical Center one of three accredited sleep centers in Williamson County.

For more information about The Sleep Center at Williamson Medical Center or to schedule a sleep study, call 615.435.7720.

Making sleep studies more comfortable

Each sleep study room is designed to feel like a hotel room with attractive bedding, a flat panel TV and a private bathroom, but for some patients, that's still not enough comfort to calm the nerves during a sleep study.

Milstone realized that for many people struggling with sleep issues, or even the side effects of irregular sleep patterns, the idea of doing a sleep study was intimidating at the least and even scary to some. So he began taking an afternoon to bring sleep study candidates in to the Sleep Center to see the rooms, talk with technicians and get a sneak preview of what was to come. This became so popular that what started as one day a month turned into two days a month, then three.

Currently, Milstone will bring 30 to 40 new patients through Sleep-A-Palooza every month.

"We realized about three years ago that people were nervous about being away from home for a night," Milstone said. "We thought this would lower the apprehension about the test."