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.

There is also the matter of safety sensitive positions and any state provisions. For example the University of California pretty much lists every hospital based position as safety sensitive. The state of Connecticut I think also has a similar list. So I think the justification for UDS is to mitigate some of the risk that may arise from medical errors by employees. I'm not sure about that though.

Mike 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 7:31 AM, LeClair-Netzel, Megan E
<MLeClair-Netzel@uwhealth.org> wrote:

Hello,

 

Our C-suite has told Employee Health we need to investigate stopping urine drug screens for new hires as a cost savings measure and only UDS those for who it is required by law or certification.

 

  • Have any others gone through this or stopped pre-employment UDS?
  • What certifying bodies for a hospital organization require UDS?
    • For example, we found out specialty pharmacy need UDS for URAC

 

Thanks,

 

Megan

 

 

Megan LeClair-Netzel, DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC

Employee Health Services

UW Health

(608) 263-7535

she/her (Why pronouns are important)

 

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