Can You Find Good Help?

As the economy continues to strengthen and grow and the memories of the Great Recession fade, challenges for growing businesses continue to mount. With unemployment rates steadily decreasing, the pool of good quality available workers also decreases. The most reliable applicants who are drug free with clean backgrounds are likely already employed leaving behind a pool of applicants that may be drug users and/or have undesirable background histories. Now, more than ever, good employee screening practices are critical to the success of your business. What is put at risk when a company elects to forgo drug screening and background checks as part of their employee application process? For starters, the company’s reputation, the safety of other employees, the well being of customers and your company’s financial stability are all at stake.

 

 

Reputation

Your company’s reputation is on the line every day. You have built your company and it’s reputation and know how damaging an unsatisfied customer can be. Your employees represent your company and their appearance, behavior and actions are a direct reflection of your company. Without proper screening tools in place and in use, placing a drug abuser or person with a criminal record in a position to reflect and represent your company is very likely. Do you really want your company represented by a drug abuser? A child molester? A convicted felon?

 

What about second chances? Some companies are looking toward the recently incarcerated and people with past criminal records (depending on the infraction) to fill employment needs. Knowing a person’s past and working with them and giving them that second chance may produce incredibly productive, loyal and thankful employees. Bringing someone on board that is currently testing positive for drug use, on the other hand, may not be the best option.

 

Safety & Well Being

Substance use and abuse in the workplace is the leading cause of accidents on the job. More often than not, the injured party is usually a fellow employee of the drug user instead of the drug user themselves. Creating a safe work environment for all employees creates an environment where everyone will be happier. If caring about your employee’s well being is not high on your priority list, how about your customers? Is you customer’s safety important to you. Should electrical systems be installed properly to avoid fires? Who really needs their customers to have correctly working brakes, right? The safety and well being of all of your employees and your customers should be a top priority – always.

 

Financial Stability

The bottom line is your bottom line. When accidents happen, it costs the company money – in insurance rate increases, time off, production losses, etc. When a user or abuser of drugs is working for you, it can cost you more than you can afford. Substance abusers (drug and alcohol) cost businesses billions of dollars every year!   As a result, companies can lose customers, experience decreased productivity, see higher rates of absenteeism and turnover costs, pay higher insurance and worker’s compensation premiums, the list goes on and on.

 

Conclusion

Just because you absolutely need to fill a position and hire someone, the last thing you want to do is skimp on the employee screening tools available to you such as background checks and drug screens. It would be more cost effective to leave the position unfilled than to allow someone to come on board that could potentially destroy your company.   You may want to consider raising your starting pay rates, offering more or better benefits, recruiting good workers from other companies and competitors. Be creative and make your company more attractive to potential employees – do everything you can to attract the best applicants and screen out the applicants that can harm your business and reputation. Companies that are doing these things are raising prices and cutting costs in other areas to be able to offer better wages and benefits and a more attractive work environment.

What is a MRO – Medical Review Officer?

MRO in the world of drug testing stands for Medical Review Officer. A MRO is a licensed physician who receives and reviews laboratory drug test results and evaluates those results while taking into consideration the donor’s medical history and prescription usage. These physicians are specially trained in substance abuse testing and provide protection for the donor to ensure that a positive drug test result is not due to legitimate prescription usage.

 

MRO review, while not always required, is very common in employment drug testing in order to protect both the employee and the employer. MRO review is less common when it comes to legal or court ordered testing.

The MRO Review Process

The MRO review process begins when the laboratory has completed the drug testing process and reports their findings (results) to the Medical Review Officer. The Medical Review Officer’s team examine the entire collection process to make sure the correct test panel was performed and that the correct procedures were followed by the collector to make sure that there is no evidence of tampering or foul play that could disqualify the results.

When a drug test is reported positive by the lab, the MRO will then contact the donor to determine if there is a legitimate medical explanation for the positive lab result.  The MRO will ask the donor specific, health history and prescription usage questions and seek to validate any history or prescription information provided by the donor. In some cases. prescription medications or medical treatments can cause a positive lab test result.  In these situations, the MRO will obtain verification of a valid prescription or recent medical treatment and then finalize the drug test result and report the result as negative or positive based on their findings.

Using an MRO to review and interpret the laboratory test results provides a professional, scientific, unbiased, third party review of the results. This protects the donor’s health and medical history from parties that do not have the right to that information and also protects the entire process to insure the integrity of the testing process from collection to the final result being reported.

MRO Review For Employment Drug Testing

MRO review is required for all Department of Transportation (DOT) regulated drug testing. For unregulated testing, or non-DOT testing, MRO review is not required, but is strongly recommended given the protections it offers both the employee and the employer.

MRO Review For Legal/Court Testing

MRO review for court ordered or legal forensic drug testing is not as common. The lack of MRO review provides the court the opportunity to see the raw test results direct from the laboratory. Without MRO review, the determination if a drug test is positive due to prescription medication, medical procedures or illegal use gets placed into the hands of lawyers, judges and juries.

 

To learn more about what drug testing services are best suited for your needs, please call or text 843-972-3287 or email us.