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Figtree Private Hospital awarded national accreditation for sleep studies

The Sleep Studies Unit at Figtree Private Hospital has been recognised by Australia’s peak accreditation body, the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).

NATA accreditation recognises and promotes the competence of facilities to carry out specific types of testing, offering patients quality assurance.

Figtree Private Hospital CEO, David Crowe, said the recognition signalled an important and prestigious milestone for the unit.

“Not only have we been doing this for 25 years, but the hoops that you have to jump through to achieve this accreditation add a great amount of importance to the studies we provide,” Mr Crowe said.

The accreditation process was extremely involved and took the hospital three years to complete. Staff were required provide a full list of unit protocols, before NATA staff conducted an inspection of the site.

Sleep Studies Unit Director, Dr Terry Sands, said: “They measure equipment and protocols for every circumstance, staffing arrangements, forms, education, mentoring - every part of medical practice you can think of from a medical and administrative point of view.”

Figtree Private’s sleep studies unit has seen more than 30,000 paediatric and adult patients during more than 25 years of operating.

The unit is run by a highly experienced multidisciplinary team of specialists and surgeons, who provide a full service, from investigations through to surgery.

“The primary thing we look at is sleep apnoea. There are some other diseases including periodic limb movement disorder, which is the jerking of limbs during sleep, and narcolepsy, causing excessive day time sleepiness,” Dr Sands said.