Joe Fanucchi MD FACOEM
President and Medical Director
MediTrax / OHS, Inc.
o:925-820-7758
c:925-368-3367
drjoe@meditrax.com
MediTrax: Everything you need, at a fraction of the cost!
Off the top of my head I can think of two issues to investigate.1. If the hospital takes Medicare or Medicaid or other forms of federal money, they may be obligated to do something to meet the federal (and possibly state) Drug Free Workplace mandate.2. If the Workers' Comp carrier offers a discount rate for a workforce that has been screened.
Colleagues:
My own personal opinion, as well as my employer's (oh, wait, I'm retired from practice -- so my only employer now is myself):
EVERY hospital in this country takes Medicare
or Medicaid or "other forms of federal money." That clearly
does not obligate federal facilities (such as the VA or IHS
hospitals) to conduct pre- or post-offer drug testing on job
applicants.
There is NO language anywhere in the Drug Free
Workplace Act -- none at all -- that requires urine drug
testing of workers or job applicants.
Claiming that all hospital employees are somehow in "safety sensitive" positions is a joke -- does that include the workers in the hospital gift shop who never handle financial transactions, but only point out to visitors where they can find cute stuffed toys for their hospitalized kids?
I agree with Dr Melanie Swift -- a lot of the hype about the benefit of universal preplacement urine drug screening seems to come from vendors who sell that service.
Respectfully,
Joe Fanucchi