Hello Priscilla

I will try and answer your questions in order:

1) it is best practise for employees to be selected by a third party using payroll numbers or other unique number.  This will remove any claims on company influence.  Alternative selection methods, if this has to be done in-house, include using playing cards.  The key point is that the whole process is open and visible to the donor.  It would be useful to write this procedure down and x-reference it in the policy
2) the collection officer will ask about medications when the sample is collected.  It would be advisable for the donor to read a 'donor advice sheet' beforehand where questions of meds are addressed, it also can be used as a prompt for donors to start thinking about their meds.  As for 'special foods', or poppy seeds which is the usual inference, this is the role of the medical review officer who should be trained to work with the testing lab to verify or refute their consumption.  There is mixed value to recording this at the time of the collection.
3) this will depend on your policy and procedures.  Point of collection devices (POC) and valid in the correct context and all positives must be subject to confirmation.  Blood samples are not used for drug testing in the workplace.  Samples include urine and oral fluid; hair is rare though possible.  Urine and oral fluid can be subject to POCs and can be confirmed in an accredited laboratory.  Further info is available though I talk better than I type!
4) trained collection officers undertake the collection with a key feature being the maintenance of the C of C.  In the lab, exactly the same.  Have you visited your service provider?  What does their service level agreement say?  Is your service provider ISO17025 accredited where SLA and customer services and monitored and scrutinised under this accreditation?  Happy to answer questions as I act as an independent assessor for UKAS, who accredit labs for ISO17025.
5) Lots of ways to do this, however my question is 'which is the best to keep the company away from industrial tribunals?'  What you save on cheapest, quickest, minimal you could spend double and more dealing with tribunals, bad image and discredited procedures.
6) if this is being done in-house, calibrated breathalysers, robust collection facilities, POCs with UK cut-off levels and sensitivities and so on

Also consider, who  will receive the lab results, who will interpret them, their training/competencies, are HR aware of their role and ready, challenge procures, if the policy is old and staff unaware or have forgotten about the possibility of unannounced/random testing they will need reminding/re-training and so on.

As I said, I talk better than I type, so please do not hesitate to contact me if I can help.  I am London based if you want to meet.
Take care
Helen

|  Helen Vangikar  |  Toxicology Consultant  |  m. +44 (0)7856 979961  |  e. [log in to unmask]  |  www.helenvangikar.com  |


-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Priscilla Corrigan
Sent: 30 June 2010 12:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] Help! random drug testing

Hello All

Does anybody's organisation carry out random drug testing? If yes, I would be very grateful for your advice on the process. Our Substance Abuse policy states that we reserve the right to do random drug testing but does not stipulate how or clearly define who is going to do this except that they 'attend Occ Health'!!!

My main questions are: -

1) how are employees randomly selected and who is responsible for this?
2) Do they complete a form first to pre-declare any meds or special foods ingested?
3) Are they screened in the OH dept at the point of contact using dipsticks or do they have bloods taken to be sent off for lab analysis?
4) How do you ensure chain of custody?
5) What is the quickest, low cost method which requires minimal training?
6) What special equipment might be needed?

Thank you in advance for those who can give me some direction!

Priscilla

 

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