A truly effective drug testing service is a fine balance between compliance and accuracy and human interaction. Conducting drug testing on staff can go very wrong very easily if you don’t have a well-defined procedure that is compliant to one of the Standards (Urine or Oral Fluid) and follows a logical sequence.
Many organisations elect to do it themselves without the assistance of a professional and accredited collection agency. Quite aside from the lack of compliance to the Standard which requires testing by an accredited provider using collectors trained to a national standard, the potential for legally indefensible testing is high.
An effective drug testing program therefore will have certain key elements including sample collection by an accredited provider, well defined procedures and a robust policy, staff education, an accredited confirmatory laboratory and devices that are appropriate to the testing environment.
The framework for an effective drug testing program includes the following 11 key steps:
- A well written policy and procedure that is legally defensible and easily applied
- Education of staff about drug and alcohol testing processes and your policy
- A robust and fair test subject selection process and clear rules for when testing will occur
- Efficient testing procedures that respect the dignity and privacy of donors
- Rigorous and compliant chain of custody procedures for transporting samples to the laboratory for analysis
- Well defined processes for managing staff pending laboratory analysis of results
- Compliant, quality analysis by an accredited confirmatory laboratory
- Solid advice and support in interpretation of lab results
- Appropriate management of staff who return to work
- Sound statistical reporting to monitor the performance of your program
- Strong Human Resource (and possibly legal advice) for the management of staff who will not return to work
If you require assistance with any or all of these steps for your program, please contact our professional staff. We’re happy to assist.