Since 1983, Concorde has established itself as an industry leader in all facets of Employment Screening and Health Services including: Drug and Alcohol Testing, Background Screening and Occupational Health Services. At Concorde, we are “Big Enough to Serve You, but Small Enough to Know You.”

A Brief History of Concorde, Inc.

by Founder Stephen Rosenzweig

The idea for Concorde was conceived in 1976 when the associate medical director of Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company asked me if I could assist one of his agents’ clients with obtaining over 70 physical examinations in the next 3 days. At that time DOCS, Inc. was a company doing paramedical and medical insurance examinations. This client was local to Philadelphia but had been acquired by a large New England solid waste company.

1983, Concorde was spun off from DOCS, Inc. as a separate company. By then, Concorde was doing DOT physical examinations and wellness programs for the largest solid waste company in the US and had added other occupational health services. In the mid 1980’s Concorde provided medical surveillance for tunnel workers building the Washington DC METRO system under compressed air. This contract was performed in a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Hyperbaric Medical department. Concorde performed similar types of projects for ChemNuclear, ChemWaste, and the Fairfax County Sewer Authority. These were single projects that involved providing medical personnel and testing for workers in dangerous environments.

In 1988, Congress passed and President Regan signed the Drug Free Workplace Act permitting the US Government and private employers to test applicants and employees for drugs of abuse and permitting discipline and/or consequences for the use of cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, opiates, and PCP. At this point in our history, Concorde was also providing workplace medical services through full-time Concorde physicians, nurses and other medical personal working at our clients’ worksites or workplaces. These services included, OSHA monitoring, minor injury treatment, Workers Compensation injury treatment, triage as well as case management, “sick call” and wellness programs.

In 1989 Concorde began to perform DOT drug testing. From 1989 to 1990 we developed FASTTEST, the first automated software to manage the entire regulated drug testing process for a Third Party Administrator (TPA) and Medical Review Officer(s) (MRO). Our MROs attended the first informal MRO “school” prior to the inception of the requirement for MROs to be trained and certified. We also developed a client side software application, S.M.A.R.T.® to permit our clients to order tests, track results, and retrieve reports using proprietary software installed on their PCs. This system was used by many US Federal Agencies to manage their mandated drug-testing program.

In 1990, Concorde got into alcohol testing after making a large purchase of Evidentiary Breath Testing Equipment (EBT) from Draeger. That same year the National Institute for Forensic Collections (NIFC) was formed to train and provide on-site, mobile drug and alcohol collectors and to provide continuing education for these individuals.  In the 1990s, Concorde expanded through the acquisition of Occu-Resource, LifeData on-site collection services.

From 2000 to 2010, Concorde improved and added many new I.T. systems including an Information Management System (IMS) to manage documents and a new version of SMART®. Concorde became the endorsed vendor for the National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA), now called National Waste & Recycling Association, and using IMS as a base, developed DQ-it,® a system to manage Driver Qualification Files that are required of employers of DOT regulated drivers. Concorde also developed PhillyFluShots.com and we are a very large provider of Influenza inoculations in the Delaware Valley and elsewhere.

Over the past decade, from 2011 to 2019, we have significantly transformed our offerings. FASTTEST and SMART® underwent comprehensive upgrades to become web-based solutions. Notably, SMART® evolved into a sophisticated web application, granting users seamless access to all drug and alcohol results while securely storing copies of all original documents. Moreover, DQ-it® introduced a platform that enabled users to effortlessly view driver files, order Motor Vehicle Records (MVR), schedule DOT Medical Examinations, and access CSA data directly from the FMCSA database. Today, we’re proud to consolidate these features and introduce additional capabilities in our unified online platform, SPARC®. Our journey reflects our commitment to meeting our clients’ needs, and we are constantly innovating. Stay tuned, as our Research and Development Team is fervently working on the next breakthrough in compliance solutions

Click here to Contact Us.