From growing your own talent to outsourcing scoring, sleep lab leaders share practical strategies to stabilize staffing in a shrinking workforce.
By Lisa Spear
The sleep subspecialty is not doing a great job attracting the next generation of sleep techs, says Amber Allen, MBA, RPSGT, CCSH, a past president of the Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists. “We experienced a large exodus from the profession due to COVID, retirements, and other factors,” says Allen, who’s also the executive director – continuing health education and wellness at Collin College in Texas. “The percentage who have left far outweighs the percentage entering, creating this imbalance. There is also still very limited awareness of sleep technology as a profession, which creates a pipeline issue. We have to do a better job as a profession of marketing the profession.”
While there are obstacles to staffing sleep labs, managers may have more options than they realize to fill sleep tech roles. Forward-thinking sleep disorders centers are launching their own sleep tech training programs, paying for trainee education, tapping into staffing agencies, or identifying other creative solutions to fill gaps.
For those looking to hire sleep techs in this employment environment, consider the following tips.
1. Train Your Own Sleep Techs
Some sleep labs are “growing their own” talent. “Sleep technology is one of those areas where you can still do on-the-job training,” says Lauri Leadley, founder and president of Valley Sleep Center in Arizona, which launched a training program approximately 10 years ago.
The trainees help take some of the administrative burden off sleep techs. They take on tasks like scanning insurance cards while learning about the world of sleep medicine and sleep technology.
“I discovered that we could offer people full-time work and they would come in and learn the clinic, check patients in, take blood pressures, and get their feet wet in the medical field,” Leadley says.
2. Support Sleep Tech Education
After spending some time in the sleep lab, trainees at Valley Sleep Center are encouraged to start the A-STEP, the accredited sleep technologist education program.
The A-STEP program provides participants with standardized education and training in sleep medicine and the professional skills required of a sleep tech.
The trainees do the A-STEP modules on their own. Once they have completed half of A-STEP, they can come to the sleep lab for a 200-hour internship. The internship runs alongside their full-time trainee job, so they stay after work or come into the lab on their day off to complete the internship hours.
During the internship, they are encouraged to get more involved with the sleep techs and learn on the job. This also allows the Valley Sleep Center manager to evaluate the trainee’s skill level.
“Not everybody is really great with hands-on patient care, so that gives us both the chance to make sure that it is a good fit,” says Leadley. “Once that happens, then they can actually be hired as a sleep tech. If there are no current openings, the former trainee can be hired per diem to cover available shifts when sleep techs call in sick.”
3. Partner with Local Sleep Tech Schools
Build relationships with educational programs in your area. Considering becoming a clinical partner for these programs, because those rotations can serve as long “job interviews” to see if a sleep tech student or trainee may be a great fit for your organization, says Allen.
If there is no education program in your area, find one with an online offering that you can partner with to train aspiring techs didactically while completing the required clinical training at your own facility, Allen suggests.
4. Source Talent from Within
Look to the staffers on your team who might have an interest in becoming a sleep tech. “While they are working, they might see the opportunity to grow, and they might already be on our insurance team or our scheduling team,” says Leadley. When the Valley Sleep Center is interviewing candidates for other jobs within the organization, the interviewer might mention that there could be an opportunity to become a sleep tech.
Otherwise, most of the center’s sleep tech talent has come to the organization organically, through word of mouth, or at industry conferences.
5. Seek Help from a Staffing Agency or Healthcare Management Company
There are several options for sleep labs that want to outsource some of their workflow, including bringing in temporary sleep techs or using remote sleep test scoring programs.
Companies like Pivotal Health (formerly MedBridge) and Persante offer services that promise to fill in staffing gaps and scale sleep programs.
Persante, for instance, partners with more than 250 hospitals. It provides a full range of roles, including in-lab technologists, remote scoring teams, and operational support such as patient coordination and workflow management.
“We assess the current program, identify gaps across in-lab coverage, scoring, and operations, and deploy the appropriate resources to stabilize and optimize performance. In many cases, support can be implemented within weeks rather than months, which is critical for programs already under pressure,” says Whitney Brenke, chief operating officer of Persante. “Onboarding timelines vary depending on the scope of support, but one of our priorities is minimizing disruption.”
6. Outsource Sleep Scoring
There is also the option of outsourcing the lab’s sleep scoring to a third-party company.
“For many labs, this means having a reliable backup during vacations, leaves, open positions, or periods of increased volume,” says Chad Doucette, vice president of sales and marketing at Sleep Strategies, which provides outsourced sleep scoring services. “For others, it means integrating external scoring into their regular workflow to reduce pressure on internal teams.”
7. Don’t Forget About Staff Retention
One strategy to get ahead of staffing challenges is to work on staff retention. Allen suggests that labs offer predictable schedules, in which sleep techs have set rotations with fewer last-minute changes. Shift flexibility and allowing techs to choose the days they work can also help.
Also, make a point to recognize staff for doing a good job. “We are so good at recognizing staff when they leave or retire, but often managers don’t do a very good job of making them feel appreciated throughout their careers,” says Allen. “If staff feel valued, they are more apt to stay. Providing mentorship and involving techs in the decision-making makes them feel like they have some ownership in operations. The labs that are winning right now are the ones building ecosystems and a culture that makes people want to stay.”
