Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs when the airway of a patient becomes anatomically obstructed of collapsed and is often accompanied by periods of paused breathing called apnea, leading to cardiac difficulties that affect the heartbeat, heart rate, and the development of thrombus. It is reported that up to 60% of preoperative patients have undiagnosed OSA. More than one billion people in the world suffer from OSA, and in the United States, more than 80% of patients who have OSA are undiagnosed and untreated. In Utah, over 33% of adults report shortened sleep cycle, which is a symptom of OSA, and in Washington county in southern UTah, over 32% of adults report this same problem. When surgical patients present to an ambulatory surgical center for elective surgery, they should be screened for OSA quickly and easily because many of them have not been properly screened prior to this, and if OSA is present, then those patients are at risk for serious complications. The purpose of this project is to raise educational awareness and competency within the staff at the surgery center surrounding the use of the STOP Bang questionnaire (SBQ) for proper risk assessment for OSA, and to revise the OSA assessment process with the use of the complete SBQ and then utilize those SBQ scores to improve patient awareness and education on their risk for OSA.
