Midwest Respiratory and Rehab reduces safety incidents by 80% with Verizon Connect fleet management

In a hospital room in Little Rock, Arkansas, an oxygen concentrator quietly hummed beside a hospice patient's bed. Miles away, Patrick Fisher, Regional Operations Manager at Midwest Respiratory and Rehab, watched his live tracking map as one of his drivers navigated through afternoon traffic. Another emergency order had just arrived: A patient's equipment had failed, and they needed oxygen immediately.

"There might be a patient who's declining and imminently on the verge of death," Fisher said. "So, they'll send an order in for oxygen delivery. We have to get it there ASAP."

This family-owned durable medical equipment company has served hospice patients across the Midwest for over 15 years, providing a range of essential equipment, including oxygen therapy, CPAP machines and mobility aids. But with 119 vehicles crossing multiple states daily, Midwest Respiratory found itself battling operational disarray that threatened its ability to provide quality care.

Rising insurance costs signal deeper fleet management issues

Fisher didn't mince words about the serious problems Midwest Respiratory was facing. "Our insurance company was having a fit," he said. Company drivers were involved in several accidents and found to be at fault. It also incurred multiple U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) violations for drivers texting while driving, despite a strict hands-free policy. Midwest Respiratory's insurance carrier had also designated the company as high-risk, resulting in increased premiums across its entire fleet.

Fisher suspected deeper problems, but lacked the necessary visibility to address them. Drivers would clock in, but discrepancies arose between the reported hours and the actual work completed. Some trucks returned with unexplained mileage. Others seemed to take inexplicably long routes between deliveries. As the company would later learn, one driver made regular visits to a local casino during work hours. But without concrete data, Fisher couldn't determine whether these were isolated incidents or systemic issues affecting service quality.

This operational blindness created an even more critical problem: When equipment failed at a hospice facility, such as oxygen concentrators breaking down or ventilators malfunctioning, dispatchers had no way to identify which driver could respond the fastest. They'd call one driver after another, wasting precious minutes while patients struggled to breathe. For a company whose mission centers on end-of-life care, this level of service wasn't just inefficient. It was unacceptable.

Geofencing and cameras restore driver accountability

Midwest Respiratory selected Verizon Connect to transform its fleet operations, deploying 43 vehicle tracking units with AI-powered dual-facing cameras, digital vehicle inspection reports and electronic logging devices across its entire fleet.

The company strategically placed geofences around driver homes, warehouses and unauthorized locations. "We have geofences set at every driver's home and every one of the warehouses, so we can see how many times a driver returns throughout the day," Fisher explained.

The dual-facing cameras became Midwest Respiratory's most powerful tool to deter unauthorized or unsafe driver conduct. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology could instantly detect phone use, drowsy driving and unexpected lane change, immediately alerting both drivers and management when it detects anomalous behavior. The outward-facing cameras would soon prove invaluable for defending drivers against false accident claims, as well.

With this new solution, Midwest Respiratory is now able to incentivize drivers for good driving. "We also use it to reward the drivers when they are doing it right. We now provide a bi-annual driver bonus based on the safety score using the Reveal Dashboard," said Fisher.

Even routine vehicle inspections got a digital makeover. The old paper-based Driver Vehicle Inspection Report (DVIR) process had eaten up hours of administrative time. Verizon Connect streamlined this burdensome DVIR process. "If you have something wrong with the truck—let's say your windshield got hit by a rock—all you have to do is click on 'windshield,' choose 'hit by rock,' snap a picture of it, and you're done," Fisher said. "The simplicity of the form and the easiness of the app probably cuts out 30-45 minutes a day. It is literally the easiest thing to use that I have seen. That would put us on pace to save over 100 hours in a year," he added.

After some initial coordination challenges during the implementation phase, Verizon Customer Account Manager Joseph Martinez streamlined the entire installation process by creating shared tracking spreadsheets and coordinating installations across multiple branches. "It took him about three days to start getting everything going the way it's supposed to," Fisher recalled.

Advanced fleet management reduces safety incidents by 80%

Just one month after Midwest Respiratory installed cameras in its fleet, safety-critical events plummeted by 80%. Fisher watched his daily alerts drop from hundreds to a manageable handful. Unauthorized vehicle use virtually disappeared—those casino visits became ancient history as drivers adjusted to the new reality of vehicle monitoring.

The new cameras quickly paid dividends in unexpected ways, too. Near Jefferson City, Missouri, video footage showed a Midwest Respiratory driver meticulously checking mirrors and signaling for 10 to 15 seconds before changing lanes. When another driver filed an insurance claim against them, the footage immediately cleared Midwest Respiratory, prompting the insurer to drop the claim.

"We are down to almost zero unauthorized vehicle usage," Fisher said. The GPS data also resolved those payroll discrepancies management had noticed, confirming exactly when drivers started and stopped working each day. As a result, managers no longer waste time certifying unidentified miles or correcting driver logs. "Almost immediately after installing and implementing Verizon Connect, we were able to monitor our drivers and help them make better decisions about how they used their vehicles throughout the day," he added.

The real victory came in the form of enhanced emergency response capabilities, however. Dispatchers can now instantly identify the closest driver to a patient in crisis and accurately predict their estimated time of arrival. "I can look at a map and see where my drivers are. I can usually give within a twenty-minute ETA of when the driver will be at that stop," Fisher explained.

Verizon Connect enables timely and dignified hospice care

Midwest Respiratory's fleet management transformation proved so successful that the company was able to acquire another business with 40 additional vehicles and seamlessly integrate them into the fleet management solution. "We have had experience with other telematics providers, and Verizon Connect is definitely way more user-friendly than the competition," Fisher said.

Ultimately, Verizon Connect isn't just a management tool—it's a lifeline connecting critically ill patients with the equipment they need to breathe, to move, and to live their final days with dignity. In the world of hospice care, where time is of the essence, Midwest Respiratory finally has the technology to keep pace with its urgent mission.