Sleep HealthCenters has entered into an agreement with Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab to provide sleep medicine services as part of Roadside Medical’s Driver Wellness programs. Sleep HealthCenters will support Roadside’s sleep wellness program by providing education, professional diagnosis and treatment support, all incorporated into Roadside’s overall Driver Wellness program.
Designed to enhance roadway safety by improving the health of commercial drivers, Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab says it provides cost-effective and professional medical services, including U.S. Department of Transportation-compliant physicals, drug testing, Driver Wellness Programs and now sleep services in convenient locations for professional drivers – both on the highway and in company terminals.
“You cannot effectively screen, test and treat sleep apnea without addressing and improving drivers’ overall health condition, such as weight, BMI, stress and cardiac strength,” says Rob Scheschareg, chief operating officer of Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab. “By providing continuous care for drivers for sleep, fitness, health and DOT compliance from the terminal to the highways – Roadside Medical is able to move the needle toward better driver health. And once the needle starts moving, our clients see an improvement in recruitment, safety and healthcare spending ROI.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced a focus on fatigue in commercial drivers, specifically addressing the potential impact of sleep apnea. “Healthy sleep is vital to employee wellness and safety, but for trucking companies, it can be difficult to implement a program for employees who live in different places, are constantly moving around the country, have different primary care physicians and maybe even different health insurance coverage,” says Dr. Lawrence Epstein, chief medical officer at Sleep HealthCenters, based in Brighton, Mass.
“Sleep HealthCenters’ organization of SleepPartners, a network of highly qualified sleep providers, is available to care for Roadside drivers around the country while supporting Roadside’s sleep wellness program by expediting sleep apnea diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care,” says Paul Valentine, Sleep HealthCenters’ chief executive officer. “In addition, our proprietary Web-based system called PAPCenter allows us to monitor each driver’s sleep apnea device utilization even though they may see different therapists while they are on the road in different states.”
Sleep HealthCenters, which has a system of comprehensive sleep medicine centers and clinics, currently runs 26 facilities in Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and is affiliated with academic medical institutions such as Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston. Roadside Medical, based in Sarasota, Fla., manages a nationwide network of health clinics located at Pilot Travel Centers and provides DOT certification exams and drug testing, sleep services, convenient medical care, driver wellness programs and in-terminal facilities for commercial drivers and trucking companies.
