Outpatient Services - Estes Park Health

Sleep Lab

The path to healthier sleep is often the path to a healthier life.

Often, certain conditions involving the heart, lungs, brain or weight are related to sleep problems. Participating in a sleep study is a positive first step toward regaining healthy sleep and improving your overall health. If you suspect that you might have a sleep disorder, and have not seen a physician, please call 970-586-2200 to schedule an appointment with your physician to discuss your sleep concerns. If your physician has ordered a sleep study for you, please call 970-495-8670 (PVH & MCR Sleep Centers) to schedule your study.

Since 2009, the Estes Park Health Sleep Lab has done over 1,233 sleep studies. The Sleep Lab is led by Dr. Mark Neagle, a Board Certified Medical Doctor of Sleep, and meets all standards of American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM).

What’s the purpose of a sleep study?

A sleep study measures characteristics of your sleep and your body’s behavior during sleep. Sleep studies are used to:

Diagnose sleep disorders
Help clinicians determine the right treatment for sleep problems
Adjust treatment for people already diagnosed with sleep conditions

Our sleep studies take place in the Sleep Lab located on the campus of Estes Park Health. The location is a self-standing structure, please follow the signs.

You’ll sleep in a private bedroom that’s designed for restful sleep (think: quiet, cool, and dark) and be monitored throughout the night, by sleep technicians who observe you and use technology that captures detailed data about your body’s activity during sleep.

It’s common for people to feel stressed and anxious about a sleep study, and to not sleep as well as they would at home. That’s nothing to worry about. Sleeping less, and waking more often than you normally do, won’t affect the results of a sleep study.

Symptoms that prompt a sleep study

There are several different sleep disorders that are diagnosed using sleep studies, including sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy.

STOP BANG Questionnaire

Sleep apnea is an interruption of normal breathing during sleep. Breath can become shallow (hypopnea) or briefly stopped altogether (apnea). Often, sleepers are not aware of these episodes of interrupted breathing. Symptoms of sleep apnea include:

Snoring, often loud
Gasping or choking sounds
Dry mouth or sore throat upon waking
Daytime tiredness
Headaches
Difficulty concentration
Irritability and mood swings

10 Things to Hate About Sleep Loss

Wound Care Clinic

Many people suffer from chronic open sores that can become seriously infected. A variety of factors can influence a wound to become chronic and refuse to heal. If you have circulation problems, are a senior or diabetic, you're at a greater risk of non-healing wounds because of blood flow.

If you have any of the following symptoms, you may have an infection:

Your wound feels hot, always painful or throbbing
Your wound produces pus, drainage or a bad odor
Your wound and the area surrounding are swollen
Your wound and the area around the wound are red

See your physician if you have a wound that is infected, or a skin disorder that is not healing. Your physician can refer you to the Estes Park Health Wound Care Clinic. We offer a patient-focused, evidence-based and outcome-driven program designed to get your wound healed as quickly as possible. Wounds that resist healing can lead to serious complications. Chronic and non-healing wounds can be particularly challenging. Our expert staff helps wounds progress through the stages of healing using state-of-the-art tools to get you back to doing what you love to do.

Call the Outpatient Care Coordinator at 970-586-2200 for more information.

Infusion

Estes Park Health provides a valuable service for patients needing chemotherapy, antibiotic or other types of infusion through our Outpatient Infusion Clinic, which partners with UCHealth for cancer care. Our patients can be cared for locally instead of making a long drive after therapy. Penicillin testing is also performed at the Infusion Clinic. We find that many people previously diagnosed with a penicillin allergy do not have one.

Call the Outpatient Care Coordinator at 970-744-1768 for more information.

Respiratory Therapy

Patients can complete critical pulmonary function test, such as the Six-Minute Walk Test or Oxygen Titration, right here in Estes Park. Our Respiratory Therapy Clinic also offers Nocturnal Pulse Oximetry to help identify breathing disorders during sleep—one of few such clinics at altitude in the country.

Call the Outpatient Respiratory Therapy at 970-577-4401 for more information.

Anticoagulation

Patients taking anticoagulation medication like Coumadin visit our Anticoagulation Clinic to track precise INR blood levels. Expert pharmacists then customize your prescription, as well as offer dietary education and coordination with primary care doctors.