Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is a common form of sleep disorder in which the airways collapse during sleep, most commonly as a result of too much weight pressing on the airways, preventing the person from reaching REM sleep. of the dream during which the body is rejuvenated and replenished, causing the person to get out of bed the next day feeling as tired as the night before. This is a major area of concern throughout the trucking industry regarding the safety of truck drivers, as well as the general traveling public, considering that a drowsy or fatigued driver is not capable of operating their vehicle properly. safely with the level of awareness necessary to do so. Directly coupled with this is an increased frequency of litigation being brought to trucking companies that have had a driver involved in an accident in which the driver suffers from undiagnosed sleep apnea. or the driver is not being adequately monitored to ensure effective treatment is given to control their sleep apnea. The results of these cases have ranged from relatively small fines and penalties to multi-million dollar settlements, as seen in the case ruled in late 2012 in which a court found a company’s negligence in forcing drivers to undergo tests and receiving treatment for sleep apnea resulted in an accident involving a driver who fell asleep behind the wheel with cruise control engaged, crashing into stopped traffic on a highway, killing the father of a family of three children and wife. Had this company taken a more proactive approach to addressing the need for sleep disorder testing and implemented a well-managed program, the likelihood of an accident as tragic as this could have been significantly reduced by saving that parent’s life and, ultimately, less important, a large sum of money for the company.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, OSA is primarily the result of the airways being forced shut due to too much weight pressing on them during sleep. With this in mind, it is easy to understand why the rate of people suffering from OSA increases almost linearly as weight increases, and severely obese people (BMI > 50) experience some level of sleep apnea approximately 95% of the time. weather. The correlation between OSA and obesity is undeniable, as is the frequency with which the obese also suffer from any number or combination of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, type II diabetes, and numerous heart conditions. In the eyes of HR and Security personnel, this equates to a steady increase in overall healthcare costs. The longer someone with sleep apnea goes undiagnosed or untreated, the greater the risk of developing other diseases, which can result in the company taking on more health care expenses and then taking care providers medical to raise rates across the board to cover costs. Early diagnosis and effective treatment of OSA can, in some cases, greatly reduce the chance or even prevent the onset of other conditions, such as high blood pressure or type II diabetes, and in case of late diagnosis; proper treatment can help stabilize other diseases that the person may already have in order to avoid incurring additional health costs.
Now that you see how a well-implemented sleep management program can save a company significant amounts of money by avoiding litigation and helping reduce overall healthcare costs, let’s explore how a sleep program can make your company money. and will allow you to see a return on your investment. The old saying, “A healthy worker is a happy worker and a happy worker is a productive worker” could not be more true than when it comes to the successful management of sleep disorders. Getting enough sleep at night is the cornerstone of being able to perform daily tasks and job requirements to the level expected of your employer. Studies conducted to understand the correlation between sleep and neurological abilities have shown that a person who has not slept for a period of 24 hours has the same reactive and neurological abilities as an individual with a blood alcohol level of .08% or the legal limit to continue operating a vehicle. As mentioned above, untreated OSA prevents a person from reaching REM sleep, or the stage of deep sleep in which the body effectively shuts down to rejuvenate itself. Therefore, a person suffering from untreated OSA, while not as severe as being awake for a 24 hour period, will still suffer in their cognitive abilities due to lack of sleep and as this continues night after night , the problem begins to worsen, resulting in a less efficient and productive worker. For truckers with untreated OSA, this means that the person behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle will attempt to operate that truck with diminished cognitive abilities and reaction speed. Although this won’t always result in severe crashes as mentioned above, it does get you thinking about all the other areas it could affect. How many laps did that driver miss and what does that equate to in fuel cost and lost time OR what was overlooked or overlooked while performing the pre-trip inspection of the truck, resulting in fines and penalties to the CSA score of the Business. It all comes down to the fact that a well-rested worker will put more effort into detailing, be better able to make real-time split decisions behind the wheel that could save their lives and the lives of others around them, and drive to a state of general. increase in their level of productivity.
Now, after having demonstrated all the benefits that having an adequate sleep management program can bring to a company, it is useless if drivers do not use the machines correctly and receive the correct treatment. This is why having a compliance monitoring service for all drivers who are on CPAP treatment is crucial to the overall effectiveness of the program. Without compliance monitoring, the likelihood that drivers will leave CPAP on the shelf and not use it is greatly increased, in which case all of the previously discussed negative side effects associated with untreated OSA will continue to be felt. Along with that, medical examiners who perform DOT physicals on drivers for CDL recertification are now required to see the compliance data of drivers who are supposed to be using CPAP and if they don’t meet the minimum requirements, the examiners will not They will issue full certifications and in some cases, require a driver to show up to 3 weeks of compliance before allowing the driver back on their truck. This unnecessary time away from the truck costs the company lost profit from not having enough drivers to meet already scheduled deliveries and hinders the company’s ability to hire new deliveries as they won’t be sure how many drivers will be available at the time. a given moment.
The issue of sleep apnea testing has become a hot topic within the transportation industry and is concerning to both management and drivers as to how it will affect their daily operations and when the full cost of a program will be. of treatment. However, what will become even more worrisome is not having a solution to the problem when it inevitably appears. This will only cost more in the long run, where taking a proactive approach to sleep apnea testing can actually lead to higher profit margins and lower healthcare costs for a company.
