Practice Management
It’s not an oversimplification to say that the difficult thing about providing care for truckers is that they’re not in the same place for long. What’s worse, there are certain occupational hazards that make access to care especially important. According to UrgentCareTravel (UCT), 80% of the 3.8 million professional truck drivers in the U.S. are obese; half live with untreated sleep apnea; and 65% don’t have a primary care physician. So, UCT is partnering with …
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The Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) is getting with the times and adding opioid screens to its drug testing program. Specifically, providers who conduct physicals and assessments for the DOT will have to include hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone in their screens as of January 1, 2018. In addition, methylenedioxyamphetamine has been added as an initial test analyte, and methylenedioxyethylamphetamine has been removed as a confirmatory test analyte. Adding the four semisynthetic opioids has been …
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It can be easy to become complacent about doing driver physicals required by the Department of Transportation. “Rubber stamping” them can have dire consequences for the patient, the employer, and the general public, and even raise your legal risk, however. Occ med and urgent care giant Concentra has been hit with a class action lawsuit in connection with a multiple-fatality bus crash in Maryland last November. The complaint claims that Concentra knew or should have …
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Mindful of the rampant overuse and abuse of opioid medications, the U.S. Department of Transportation has proposed adding four of the most common—hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and hydromorphone—to its list of drugs that drivers must be screened for in urine analysis tests. Following through would bring the DOT testing protocol up to date with current Health and Human Services guidelines. There’s no date set for when the proposed changes would take effect. Urgent care providers who …
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