Pacific Sleep Care is a family business featuring, from left, Jamie Deith, president and brother-in-law to CEO Gord Young, right, with Gord’s daughter Bethany Vezina, the operations manager, in the centre
COURTENAY – Pacific Sleep Care (PSC) is a local family business that specializes in providing Home Sleep Apnea Testing (HSAT) and therapeutic equipment for the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
OSA is a sleep disorder where a person restricts or stops breathing when they sleep. Some of the most common symptoms are loud disrupting snoring, gasping and choking when sleeping, chronic daytime fatigue and frequent night time urination.”
Pacific Sleep Care, has offices in Campbell River, Nanaimo and Duncan, is one of the last independently owned companies in B.C. that does HSAT and therapy for OSA. PSC was started in 2005 by Gord Young and his brother-in-law Jamie Deith. They started out Clinical Sleep Solutions in Courtenay in 2005, and rebranded it in 2012 to Pacific Sleep Care.
“The most popular treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a CPAP machine. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure a small machine that provides air at a prescribed pressure through a hose and a nasal mask,” says Young.
In 2012, PSC started to provide Oral Appliance Therapy, a custom dental device, that moves the bottom jaw forward and opens the airway. PSC have a dentist who is one of few who are credentialed as a Diplomate of Dental Sleep Medicine by the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine on their team. They are one of the only companies in the province that provides Oral Appliance Therapy as well as nPAP, and the first company in BC to start to utilize the Cerebra Level 2 Home Polysomnography.
Outside Pacific Sleep Care’s office, from left, president Jamie Deith, operations manager Bethany Vezina and CEO Gord Young
“If there is a word to describe our experience over the past two years has been, nimble,” he says. “We have had to manage to keep our business through a variety of challenges. COVID lockdowns, hybrid work place, embracing telemedicine, Phillips Respironics recall, supply chain issues reducing equipment availability, housing shortage and labor shortage.”
The best change was the introduction of guidelines and regulations in the sleep industry in BC. Pacific Sleep Care’s Home Sleep Apnea testing is accredited by the Diagnostic Accreditation Program of the College of Physicians of BC. PSC was the first company to receive Provisional Accreditation in March, 2021 in B.C.
Pacific Sleep is always trying to embrace new technology and services. PSC has introduced Maskfit A/R and Resmed Mask Selector, the Cerebra Level 2 Home Polysomnography and they anticipate in the fall, Dr. Marlies Houwing MD, CCFP will be joining the Courtenay clinic to start seeing people who struggle with insomnia.
Pacific Sleep is celebrating 17 years as a local business serving the sleep needs of our patients on Vancouver Island