BY SCOTT A. TAILLIE, ALERE
technologies, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) solicited public comment on proposals to include oral fluid and hair specimens in the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs. Te Department of Transportation (DOT) is currently reviewing submited comments, and if the agency adopts these recommendations, drug testing could become significantly less invasive and more convenient for the more than 5 million FMCSA-regulated employees.1 Another significant advance in sample
M 64 datia focus
processing happened last spring, when the DOT announced that employers may now use the electronic chain of custody
ost recently, in a promising move to leverage new sampling
form (eCCF) for drug testing. Te impact of this announcement is significant. Te eCCF forms have been used by the private sector for over a decade. But until this year, drug screening tests for government employees have been processed via the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) chain of custody and control form (CCF), a hard copy multipart form used to collect the urine specimens, and to document handling at collection sites. It is difficult to imagine that such a high
volume of tests are still processed with paper forms in 2015, when electronic and cloud-based platforms are used for everything from filing insurance claims to banking. Te CCF process requires routing 5 carbonless copies to the testing facility, the medical review officer, the collector, the employer and the employee—consuming
significant time and resources, and causing an unacceptable number of errors. With the adoption of eCCF processing,
federally regulated drug testing finally enters the digital age. Te entire drug testing process, from the scheduling and specimen collection, to the capture of the employee and collector signatures, can now be completely automated and paperless. Electronic forms benefit everyone
involved in drug screening, at every point along the process: • Electronic options give employers a more sophisticated method of managing notifications, network and site selection, enhanced data tracking capabilities, and the ability to move data seamlessly between HR systems without transcription errors or manual labor.
• Drug screening programs can be conducted more cost-effectively using
Spring 2016
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