SHARON H. FITZGERALD

Knoxville Professional Driver Medical Depot

America’s independent truck drivers usually pull into a travel center for a fill-up, a quick meal, a hot shower and a lot of coffee. Thanks to a company based in Knoxville, Tenn., healthcare is something else truckers can get on the road.

Founded in 2006, Professional Drivers Medical Depots (PDMD) has four walk-in clinics already open — in Knoxville; West Memphis, Ark.; Atlanta and Peru, Ill. — and 11 more under construction. The company plan calls for 80 clinics, mostly free-standing facilities at full-service travel centers.

“Because of their lifestyle and their work, some professional drivers are on the road for months at a time,” said Jeffrey Miller, PDMD president and CEO. “Because they’re in a 70-foot-long, 70,000-pound truck, they can’t just pull into the closest Walgreen’s and get a prescription filled or pull into the closest clinic. They can’t even go to their regular physician at home because they’re on the road all the time.”

That predicament prompted Knoxville physician John McElligott, who already served a few trucking fleets, to launch PDMD. “He estimates that he’s seen probably 10,000 truck drivers over the course of his career, so he has first-hand experience with some of their health issues,” Miller said. “He recognized that one of the biggest issues was their lack of access to healthcare.” That means truckers are self-treating with over-the-counter medications and, if they get worse, could end up in an emergency room, “which is not a good scenario from a health or from a cost standpoint,” he said.

PDMD is a privately held operator of “closed-door” clinics, which means only professional drivers are treated. “If a consumer comes in and wants to be treated, we’re going to direct them to the nearest facility that can help them out,” Miller explained. “We don’t treat mom and the kids or senior citizens in their motor home. We’re just for professional drivers.”

PDMD clinics are overseen by a medical director, a local physician who may partner with an occupational medicine doctor or an internist. Depending on state law, PDMD hires either nurse practitioners or physician assistants as mid-level providers. A clinical administrator handles the business side, and technicians on staff handle some diagnostic testing on site. “Where we can have a pharmacy in our clinics, we will, and we’ll offer the prescriptions right there to the driver,” Miller said. “One stop.”

Miller sees the clinics as “portals to the healthcare system” for truckers who may not even have a doctor. “Once we get into the community, people can see the value that we’re providing,” he said. “Initially, there were some providers, I think, who thought we were going to be taking patients away from them, and that’s not the case at all. The patients we’re seeing? They’re not being treated by anybody.

Half of all drivers do not have a primary-care physician, and that’s in the peer-reviewed literature. If they do have a doctor, we want to just take care of them so they can get home. We’re a temporary solution to a driver who’s sick on the road.”

During the last year, the Knoxville PDMD clinic made more than 300 referrals to Parkwest Medical Center, some for more extensive tests and some for emergency care. “We get a lot of drivers who are in trouble. It’s a pretty common occurrence for a driver to walk into one of our clinics, and they’re having a heart attack right now. I’m not going to say it’s a daily occurrence, but it’s common,” Miller said.

For now, the operating clinics are open from 8 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. “We’re playing around with the hours a little bit, just based on demand. Frankly, we’re prepared to be open 24/7 if the demand is there,” Miller said.

PDMD isn’t stopping with just clinics. The company also recognizes that another need for professional drivers, especially independent owner-operators, is health insurance. While trucking literature suggests that at least 30 percent of truckers have no health insurance at all, Miller said the number is probably closer to 50 percent. Thus, PDMD with a few partners founded the Professional Drivers Insurance Program, underwritten by Transamerica Corp. The program was rolled out at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., in March. The plan offers a menu of benefits covering the basic healthcare needs of drivers and even their families. Coverages include office visits, diagnostic testing, hospital stays, accident benefits, catastrophes and critical illness, dental, vision and short-term disability. Individual coverage is as little as $140 a month. The program’s toll-free number is 1-866-817-9674.

PDMD also has its eye on the healthcare needs of another underserved population: truckers’ pets. “There’s a huge interest in it. I’m not sure what we’re going to do from a business standpoint. We’re really focused on treating people right now, but there are over a million pets on the road with drivers, and those pets don’t have access to care, either,” Miller said. “We’ve been talking with some veterinarians who are very interested in solving this problem, as well as some nationwide veterinary-services companies that we may partner with. It’s early in the game, but there’s no doubt there’s a need for it.”



May 2008