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Sleep Apnea Can Make You Money and Cut Health Costs This is a significant area of concern throughout the trucking industry concerning the safety of the truck drivers in addition to the general traveling public, considering that a drowsy or fatigued driver is not capable of safely operating their car with the amount of awareness needed to achieve that. Going directly alongside this can be an elevated frequency in litigation being brought on to trucking firms who've experienced a driver involved in an accident where the driver suffers from undiagnosed sleep apnea or driver not being properly monitored to ensure effective treatment is being administered to control their sleep apnea. The results of these cases have ranged from relatively small penalties and fines to multi-million dollar settlements as noticed in the case ruled on in late 2012 in which a court determined that a organization's negligence in enforcing drivers to be tested and treated for sleep apnea led in an accident involving a motorist that dropped asleep behind the wheel with cruise control engaged, slamming into the back of stopped traffic on a highway, killing the father to a family of three children and spouse. If this company had taken a more proactive approach in addressing the need for sleep disorder testing and executed a well managed program, the likelihood of an accident as tragic as this occurring could have been significantly reduced saving the life of the father and, less significant, a substantial sum of money for the business. As Stated in the previous paragraph, OSA is primarily the Result of the airway being forced shut due to too much weight pressing down on it through sleep. With this is mind, it is easy to comprehend why the rate of people who suffer from OSA increases almost linearly as weight gains, with the severely obese (BMI>50) suffering from some amount of sleep apnea approximately 95% of their moment. The correlation between OSA and obesity is incontrovertible, much like the frequency where the fat additionally suffer with any variety or combination of chronic diseases such as hypertension, Type II diabetes, along with several heart ailments. What this equates to in the opinion of Human Resource and Safety employees is consistently increasing overall health care costs. The more that someone goes on with undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea, the greater the danger of other illnesses developing which can lead to more expenses being taken on by the business in medical care expenses then leading to health care providers raising rates across the board to cover the costs. Early identification and effective treatment of OSA can, in some instances, significantly reduce the chance or even prevent the onset of different conditions like hypertension or Type II diabetes and in case of a late diagnosis; appropriate treatment can help to stabilize different illnesses that the person may already suffer from using the goal being to prevent incurring any additional health costs. Now that you see exactly how a well enforced sleep disease Management program can save the company significant amounts of money in avoided litigation and aiding to reduce overall health care costs, let's explore how a sleep program can really make your business money and allow you to find a return on your investment. The old expression, "A healthy worker is a happy employee and a happy worker is a productive employee" can not hold truer than it can if it comes to the effective management of sleep disorders. Finding a sufficient night sleep would be the cornerstone to being able to perform daily activities and job requirements to the degree that is expected from your employer. Studies performed to comprehend the correlation between sleep and neurological capabilities have demonstrated that somebody who has not slept for a span of 24 hour interval has the same response and neurological capabilities as that of an individual having a blood alcohol level of.08 percent or the legal limit to still operate a vehicle. As stated before, untreated OSA prevents a person from attaining the REM stage of sleep or the stage of deep sleep in which the body efficiently shuts down to replenish. So http://www.benchmarksleepservices.com.au/sleep-apnea/ from untreated OSA, although not as intense as being awake for a 24 hour period, will still suffer within their cognitive abilities due to lack of sleep and since this goes on night after night, the issue starts compounding causing a less efficient and productive employee. In the case of truck drivers with untreated OSA, this usually means that the individual behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound vehicle will be trying to operate that truck with diminished cognitive abilities and reaction speed. Although this isn't necessarily likely to result in severe crashes as previously referenced, it will lead one to think about all the other areas that it might impact. The amount of turns did this motorist miss and what does that equate to in fuel cost and time lost OR What had been missed or overlooked while performing their pre-trip inspection of the truck causing fines and penalties to the firms CSA score. It all boils down to the fact that a nicely rested employee is going to be more tentative to detail, better capable of making actual time split decisions behind the wheel which could save their life and the lives of others about them, and cause an overall increase in their productivity level. Now, having shown all the benefits that having a suitable Sleep management program in place can bring to a company, it is all for nothing if the drivers aren't correctly utilizing the machines and receiving the right treatment. This is why having a compliance monitoring service set up for many drivers that are on CPAP treatment is crucial to the overall efficacy of the program. Without compliance monitoring, the likelihood of drivers sitting the CPAP on the shelf rather than using it increases considerably in which case all the negative side effects which were discussed previously that are associated with untreated OSA will nevertheless be felt. Together with that, medical examiners who perform the DOT physicals on motorists for CDL recertification are now needing to see compliance information for drivers that are suppose to be using CPAP and if they don't meet the minimum requirements, the examiners will not issue full certifications and sometimes require a driver to appear to 3 weeks of compliance before permitting that driver to get back in their truck. This unnecessary time spent from the truck costs the company lost profits by not having enough drivers to fulfill already scheduled deliveries and hinders the company's capacity to contract fresh deliveries because they will be unsure about how many drivers will soon be available at a particular time. The Dilemma of sleep apnea testing has become a hot topic Inside the transport business and worrisome to management and drivers Equally as to how it's going to impact their day to day operations and when the Entire cost of a treatment program will be. However, What Is Going to become even More of a concern isn't having a solution to the problem when it inevitably shows up. This Is Only Going to cost more in the Long Term, where using a proactive Approach to sleep apnea testing can actually bring greater profit margins and