East Alabama Health Sleep Program earns Inspire Care Team of Excellence Award

In healthcare, working collaboratively as a team is critical to providing patients with the best care possible. The understanding of that importance by a team of providers at East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) has earned the hospital the Inspire Institute’s Care Team of Excellence Award.

The Inspire Care Team of Excellence award is given to hospital programs that collaborate across the disciplines of sleep medicine and otorhinolaryngology to deliver great patient outcomes in cases of treatment-resistant obstructive sleep apnea.

“The Inspire hypoglossal nerve stimulator is a significant step forward in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea for properly selected patients,” said William Blythe, M.D., an otorhinolaryngologist with East Alabama Ear, Nose and Throat. “The surgeons and practitioners at East Alabama ENT have been honored to be a part of the multi-disciplinary team that provides this therapy to needful patients.”

Patients are cared for by EAMC’s team that is made up of ear, nose and throat specialists, sleep medicine specialists, nurses, sleep technologists and support staff. The team’s goal is to provide patients with a better quality of life by offering the Inspire Medical Systems’ novel implanted sleep apnea treatment device.

“Developing our Inspire program has been a game-changer for our patients with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea who haven’t been able to tolerate CPAP or BiPAP therapy,” stated Christopher Hope, M.D., medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at EAMC. “It’s been really satisfying to see so many patients do well now who were struggling before,” Dr. Hope said. “It’s also quite humbling for our team to be recognized as one of the best in the country.”

East Alabama Medical Center was one of the first four in the nation to receive this recognition and remains one of only seven centers in the nation—out of 950 clinical locations—to earn the designation.

Since 2019, EAMC has cared for 145 Inspire patients, guiding them from initial consultation to implant procedure through post-operative management. The team has seen incredible improvement in key metrics that are used to measure post-procedure impact on a patient’s disorder severity and quality of life.

Across the program, markers of disease severity such as the apnea-hypopnea index, have improved from a pre-implant average of 36.2 breathing events per hour to an average of just 7.9 events per hour. Likewise, participants’ average Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores dropped from an abnormal level of 12 before implantation to the normal range of 7 after treatment.

“The care team at EAMC is exceptional,” said Ashley Hester, territory manager for Inspire Medical Systems. “Every member of the team is highly involved, and genuinely invested in the patient’s health."

Inspire officials Jeff Smalley (regional manager, far left) and Ashley Hester (territory manager, 3rd from left) hosted a celebration in honor of EAMC earning the Care Team of Excellence award. Included in the celebration were employees and physicians from EAMC’s Sleep Disorders Center and Surgery department as well as from the East Alabama Ear, Nose and Throat office.