Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Type 2 Diabetes: A Screening Approach

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder common among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The aim of this quality improvement project was to increase identification and referral for sleep study for individuals with T2D at moderate to high risk for OSA. Pre- and post-intervention patient samples were analyzed to compare the number of referrals for sleep study. Results demonstrated that none of the patients pre-intervention were referred for sleep study compared with 77% of patients post-intervention. This project demonstrated implementing an evidence-based tool to screen patients with T2D for OSA leads to higher rates of detection and referral.