Michelle Fehr, Sleep Disorder Centre

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing our world and health-care professionals are on the front lines.

Michelle Fehr, a respiratory therapist at Misericordia’s Sleep Disorder Centre, says the sleep team has upped their game during COVID-19.

To protect patient safety and still deliver their needed services, they are visiting patients at hospitals to allow them to go home sooner rather than bring them to MHC for a full sleep study.

Ordinarily a sleep study would allow Michelle and her team to determine if someone requires a bi-level machine to help them breathe during sleep, and how to calibrate the machine for that patient.

To allow patients to get their machines and go home, the team at Misericordia is remotely downloading data from the machines and visiting patients at hospitals to give them the help they need to go home without making an extra trip to the centre.

It’s a major adaptation, but it’s keeping more people safe during the COVID-19 outbreak and still allowing patients with sleep disorders or lung disease to get the equipment they need to breathe properly.

Michelle is also keeping herself and others safe by washing her hands a lot more, and social/physical distancing—a critical measure to stopping the spread of the virus. It’s a measure Michelle will be glad to discard once COVID-19 is defeated.

“You know what I miss doing? Hugging people. That will probably be the first thing I give them a hug, all my friends, when this is over!”

Keep COVID-19 informed by visiting: covid19manitoba.ca

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