• Various rules mandate comfort for sleep clinic patients and technicians.sleep image by DXfoto.com from Fotolia.com
  
  Sleep technicians conduct the valuable work of evaluating an estimated 50 to 70 million Americans dealing with some form of sleep disorder. According to the National Institutes of Health, this condition can severely "diminish health, alertness and safety." When a patient visits a sleep clinic, that clinic should not only be licensed by the state to conform to comfort standards set for all patients and employees of medical facilities, but it should be certified by one or all three industry organizations.
  
  

Government Regulations

• Sleep disorder centers must follow a range of federal, state and local regulations for medical facilities, particularly depending on the area of operations. These laws are not related to technician comfort, however, but are mostly related to public health or aesthetics -- state medical waste management and infection control laws or local building codes and zoning prohibitions. Check your state's Medical Practice Act and local laws for specifics.
  
  

Accreditation Standards

• The comfort of technicians and patients is addressed almost exclusively by the national accrediting bodies that pertain to the field of sleep disorders: the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, or AASM; the American Board of Sleep Medicine, or ABSM; or the American Board of Internal Medicine, though keep in mind that the ABSM stopped licensing members for life after the 2006 exams. All of these organizations offer accreditation verification for sleep clinics. Many clinics are licensed by all three or more, and you should ask when approaching a clinic about its standards. These bodies each follow the Code of Medical Ethics of the American Medical Association in regards to comfort, as well as further standards detailed by AASM.
  
  

What Comfort and Whose?

• For patients, accreditation means comfort in testing rooms that, according to the AASM, "must afford comfort, privacy, safety and accessibility and allow for effective data acquisition." This means, according to the AASM standards of licensure, that adequate bathrooms should be available, testing rooms should generally be a minimum of 140 square feet, and at least one testing room and bathroom should be handicapped-accessible. Also, the AASM advises that the facilities should aim to mimic the decor of a real bedroom.
  
  For technicians, the AASM requires that the control room be "adequate in size, design, location and comfort to allow for effective function and comfort of technologists." Because technologists have to "maintain vigilance" over the night and have quick access to patients, the environment should be conducive to this mission.