With 7 years of experience in the sleep industry, Dani is a veteran to sleep quality and care at Snore MD Mission sleep clinic. We took a moment to catch up with her over the phone and find out more about life at Snore MD!
What attracted you to join the Snore MD sleep clinic in Mission?
I live in Mission and the idea of actually working in Mission is a pretty foreign concept as it is quite a commuter-type town. There are a lot of people commuting into the inner cities to work. I loved the idea of working and living in the same town and dealing with my own community.
When I joined, it was a fairly new company. Snore MD Mission had only been around for about a year but from what I could tell, they were growing quickly—which is always a good sign. Also, their store’s location was very strategic for walk-in patients.
What are some of your common complaints a new patient walks in with?
Most patients that come in have already been diagnosed with sleep apnea and have been on CPAP before. One of their biggest complaints is that they’ve never really been followed up with. These people have old equipment at home that needs to be looked after and is falling apart. Sometimes, they aren’t educated on their equipment in the first place, so they don’t know what needs to be replaced.
New patients usually come in saying, “I snore” or, “My bed partner tells me that I snore a lot and I’m keeping them up at night”, and they ask what we can do to help. From there we go through our general questions and run a sleep test to see what the best course of action is, whether that is sleep apnea equipment or better sleep hygiene.
Who do you help in the community you work in?
Honestly, I would say all sorts of different demographics. I think the misconception of sleep apnea is that it only used to be overweight males. That’s really not the case. It’s all sorts of different people.
Retired, young, old, students—I had a young paramedic in here not too long ago. And I just had a gentleman in here and he was about 30 years old. Before him, there was a much older lady. The awareness of sleep apnea is definitely growing in the Mission community.
What sets Snore MD Mission sleep clinic apart from other competitors?
We have a strong patient-centred focus. When people come in it’s about their needs. What is it that they are coming in for? Sometimes it’s because their doctor told them to but they don’t really know why they’re here. That means it’s up to us to educate the patients on why they might have some of the symptoms that they do. Giving the patient that education can be empowering to them.
We’re always advocating for the patient in a progressive manner. We use the most updated sleep equipment and technology, so we want to take advantage of that. But, at the same time, if someone’s not very tech savvy then we’ll look after it all for them.
Depending on the person, we may get them more involved with their care. There are certain apps patients can use with their cpap and sleep equipment now, and if they’re interested we’ll show them how to use it. But if just want it set up and leave it alone, then we can do that too!
What’s the greatest reward you get with working with Snore MD patients?
Noticing the change in the patients in terms of their general health! We see it quite a bit. Just noticing how they were before they were properly treated for sleep apnea, snoring, or insomnia and then how they are after. They literally look like a different person. They are way more awake, they’re in a different mood, they just have a completely different demeanor. Hearing from them how amazing they feel is the best part.
Customers suffering from sleep apnea less severely also comment on their experience, “This is actually a very pleasant experience, I wasn’t too excited about originally.” But by the time they walk out the door, they feel comfortable and they know that they can come back any time if they have questions.
Do you have any remarkable stories to share?
There was a gentleman who was able to come off his high blood pressure medication just because his sleep apnea was treated properly. He ended up not having to use the medication at all anymore, which is fantastic!
Similar to this, another patient has watched her blood pressure came down quite a bit. She discovered that with better overall sleep quality, she doesn’t waking up with heartburn as often as before.
Another client, a male in his thirties, was quite reluctant to visit us. He had the impression of, “Why am I here?” We treated him for a couple weeks and the next time he came back in he was like, “Seriously, this has changed my life!”