Polysomnographer
Inova Fairfax Hospital
Falls Church, VA
Nights

The Polysomnography Technician 3 completes administrative tasks to ensure efficient and consistent departmental operations within established guidelines. Demonstrates teamwork to facilitate the smooth delivery of sleep services to all hospital departments and patients. Ensures that the highest quality of accurate sleep patient test data is provided to internal and external Inova Health System patient/physician customers. Provides accurate sleep/EEG/EKG pattern recognition and effective treatment protocol to patients and physicians. Provides effective problem-solving in overcoming potential obstacles to the efficient delivery of the highest quality sleep patient test results.

Job Responsibilities

- Implements required training seminars for the department while providing consistent quality, accuracy, and legibility in the performance of all pertinent clerical duties such as filing reports and patient logs as well as billing for each procedure without incidence of administrative correction or request for additional information/clarification.
- Orders appropriate supplies, performs routine maintenance, detects equipment malfunctions, troubleshoots, makes minor repairs, and reports major problems to the appropriate hospital personnel according to department policy.
- Keeps work area in a clean and orderly fashion. Keeps equipment clean and in proper working order according to department guidelines.
- Practices good time management, keeps authorized breaks within accepted policy, and maintains levels of productivity established for the department.
- Consistently arrives for work and meetings on time and completes assigned duties ahead of deadlines. Adjusts pace of work to compensate for delays caused by others. Consistently completes all tasks in a timely manner and in accordance with established departmental policies.
- Consistently applies electrodes and other recording devices, checks impedance, and ensures accurate patient recordings according to established policies and/or evidenced by no request for data clarification or physician inquiry for additional information or clarification due to poor quality tracing or technician error.
- Provides and documents complete and accurate patient medical history, patient/machine calibrations, tech notes, and clinical events pertinent to each procedure according to established department procedures. Provides the appropriate recording montage necessary for the case under study.
- Obtains a high-quality recording by recognizing artifacts and taking immediate steps necessary to eliminate them.
- Consistently recognizes sleep stages, seizure activity, EEG/EKG waveforms, and apneic events. Accurately tabulates all records and appropriately adjusts CPAP pressure according to departmental policy.
- Routinely documents in technical notes any clinical events pertinent to each sleep study. Routinely explains and ensures that patients understand test/care plans and responds to patients' needs/concerns in a courteous and helpful manner as required by The Joint Commission. Provides tests/treatments based on unique requirements of patients' age and developmental needs.
- Performs reassessments of patient care needs by developing appropriate alternatives to the current patient test/care plan which will more effectively provide the best treatment as required by the Joint Commission.
- Routinely deals with difficult patients in a calm and reassuring manner. Requires little to no assistance in effectively handling difficult patients. Consistently and effectively resolves unexpected problem situations (i.e. regarding patients, co-workers, schedule, etc.) in a constructive manner while completing individual job responsibilities ahead of deadlines.
- May perform additional duties as assigned.

Additional Requirements

Certification - Basic Life Support (BLS) Upon Start; Registered Polysomnographic Technologist (R.PSGT) Upon StartLicensure - None requiredExperience - Two years of prior work experience in sleep disorder testing; Additional work experience in scoring of sleep tests and CPAP applications; Experience conducting EEG/sleep training seminars and quality control proceduresEducation - High School or GED High School graduate; RPSGT certification plus documented completion of Advanced Polysomnography workshops, courses, seminars, and/or comparable experience in an EEG/Respiratory/OR monitoring and/or sleep disorders laboratory