Drug testing ER docs

[dotheDO92]

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A question for residents and attendings: what are your hospital organizations’ practices on drug testing?
Are there any ER attendings who undergo random drug screening?

 

[GonnaBeADoc2222]

A question for residents and attendings: what are your hospital organizations’ practices on drug testing?
Are there any ER attendings who undergo random drug screening?

I have been tested during initial credentialing at 2 facilities. Never been randomly tested.

 

[RoyBasch]

It's in my current contract that they reserve the right to test for any suspicion at any time without warning or advanced notice. I believe there was a similar clause in my residency contract. That being said, I have never been tested in my career. Not in medical school, residency, or several years and two different attending jobs.

The risk of a "random" drug test seems low, but the results if unexpectedly positive can be catastrophic for your career. My strong advice to the OP is if you use or are considering using drugs, to avoid it in this career.

 

[Groove]

Don’t be a ******* and risk losing your medical license and hospital privileges over drugs. Your career would be effectively over.

I’ve never been tested as an attending but I’m sure the hospital probably has the right to test me on suspicion of drug or alcohol use/abuse. There’s an easy solution...just don’t use drugs. Didn’t you ever see the egg in a frying pan commercials from the 80s?

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

It depends if you are an employee or an independent contractor. You always have the right to refuse if you use firing would be better than testing positive.

 

[RustedFox]

Don’t be a ******* and risk losing your medical license and hospital privileges over drugs. Your career would be effectively over.

I’ve never been tested as an attending but I’m sure the hospital probably has the right to test me on suspicion of drug or alcohol use/abuse. There’s an easy solution...just don’t use drugs. Didn’t you ever see the egg in a frying pan commercials from the 80s?

[for the record, the OP never stated that he was a fan of drug use, but]

This. With the new "permissive" attitudes towards THC floating about, I get agitated.
Muggles do stupid things all the time. Doesn't mean that you can, too.
There's a reason that they're muggles, and we're not.

 

[Birdstrike]

A question for residents and attendings: what are your hospital organizations’ practices on drug testing?
Are there any ER attendings who undergo random drug screening?

I’ve never been tested in a medical work setting. It’s usually only done if there’s reason to believe a practitioner is impaired, then it’s done on the spot. Or if someone has been sanctioned by the state medical board for substance abuse, then the licensing board mandates it periodically.

 

[EsTxDr]

Didn’t you ever see the egg in a frying pan commercials from the 80s?

What ever happened to Rachael Leigh Cook?

 

[radsisrad]

[for the record, the OP never stated that he was a fan of drug use, but]

This. With the new "permissive" attitudes towards THC floating about, I get agitated.
Muggles do stupid things all the time. Doesn't mean that you can, too.
There's a reason that they're muggles, and we're not.

Do you drink alcoholic beverages?

 

[bravotwozero]

Do you drink alcoholic beverages?

I never touched a drop in my life.

I was drug tested in medical school,
Residency AND my attending job. Though none of it was random, all had prior notification. In residency, they even tested us for nicotine! If you tested positive, you were given a certain amount of time to quit or your health insurance premium would increase

 

[thegenius]

I never touched a drop in my life.

I was drug tested in medical school,
Residency AND my attending job. Though none of it was random, all had prior notification. In residency, they even tested us for nicotine! If you tested positive, you were given a certain amount of time to quit or your health insurance premium would increase

They should do this for all people in the US.

Oh wait!! If they do, they won't buy health insurance, then they will go on Medicaid and come to the ER for every single problem they ever have.

Doh!!!

 

[RustedFox]

Do you drink alcoholic beverages?

Yes.
But increasingly commonly, not outside my lanai.

 

[hundreddaysoff]

Only ever drug tested at the beginning. Just stay clean for 3 weeks beforehand if you partake and it will wash out. You can order a UDS kit on Amazon for like $15 and test yourself beforehand to be sure; it's probably the same reagent your facility uses.

Every contract I've ever had reserves the right to randomly test, but none have ever done it.

At least one resident was spot-UDS'd in my program for suspicious comments to RNs and generally being a weirdo. So try to fit in and don't mention your hobbies to anyone. Never heard of anyone doing hair tests or anything extreme like that.

Hopefully in 20 years people will see MJ as equivalent to alcohol and all this nonsense will be over. (And as an added bonus the muggles will stop it with this Spice nonsense, which causes so much more actual harm.) But we aren't there yet.

 

[Frazier]

Accidents, sticks, etc are random in our line of work.

If you have to go to employee health for any of the work related exposures/injuries, rest assured they might very well be drug testing you while you're there.

 

[d2305]

I've voiding in a cup tntc. Twice as initial employment screening as a civilian. They watch you in the military, which doesn't make it easy to get things flowing.

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

Accidents, sticks, etc are random in our line of work.

If you have to go to employee health for any of the work related exposures/injuries, rest assured they might very well be drug testing you while you're there.

It depends if you work in an academic hospital but most ER docs are independent contractors. I had a doc who got needle stuck employee health wouldn't touch them and they were treated like a regular employee. They keep TB stuff on us but we don't have a medical file.

Also if you live in Nevada employers can't UDS for THC

 

[Birdstrike]

Stay clean and none of this matters.

 

[emergentmd]

I have never been tested in medical school, residency, or any of my 8+ locum/full time gigs. I never knew that this even existed.

 

[dotheDO92]

Thanks all for sharing your employment experiences and contracts, information is knowledge.

@Birdstrike and @Groove, appreciate your input although I never requested medical or ethical advice regarding drug usage, nor did I divulge my personal consumption or lack there of of illicit substances.
My question was quite simply to understand the protocol in Emergency medicine employment regarding drug testing. If I am an “*******”, I doubt taking internet advice from a stranger would change that. 😉
Cheers!

 

[dotheDO92]

Stay clean and none of this matters.

Do you apply the same logic for pts with STI’s?

 

[dotheDO92]

Accidents, sticks, etc are random in our line of work.

If you have to go to employee health for any of the work related exposures/injuries, rest assured they might very well be drug testing you while you're there.

Didn’t consider that, good call out.

 

[Birdstrike]

Do you apply the same logic for pts with STI’s?

Nah. I’ll to defer to you on all things STD.

 

[deleted836128]

I was never drug tested with Envision or with a private group. But when I became a hospital employee they did urine drug test us all (funny thing is they gave us plenty of advanced notice). The worst part was I had an Ambien that my mom had given me on a 14 hour plane trip the week prior I hadn’t thought twice about taking. Luckily it didn’t flag anything and I was clean. But that’s the last time I do ANYTHING! I have been told that the hospital will continue to do random drug testing. They’ve already tested a few scribes randomly. So far I don’t know of any docs or PAs who have had to do it but we are all apparently on the list ... not a druggie here but I think about the handful of times I have smoked MJ in the last decade, and how before I might not have thought anything of taking a little hit off my fancy friend from LA’s medical marijuana pen just for kicks or taking an Ambien or Valium not Rxed to me for sleep once every few YEARS...but now I wouldn’t do it if you paid me. Not worth the risk at all.

 

[GeneralVeers]

I was never drug tested with Envision or with a private group. But when I became a hospital employee they did urine drug test us all (funny thing is they gave us plenty of advanced notice). The worst part was I had an Ambien that my mom had given me on a 14 hour plane trip the week prior I hadn’t thought twice about taking. Luckily it didn’t flag anything and I was clean. But that’s the last time I do ANYTHING! I have been told that the hospital will continue to do random drug testing. They’ve already tested a few scribes randomly. So far I don’t know of any docs or PAs who have had to do it but we are all apparently on the list ... not a druggie here but I think about the handful of times I have smoked MJ in the last decade, and how before I might not have thought anything of taking a little hit off my fancy friend from LA’s medical marijuana pen just for kicks or taking an Ambien or Valium not Rxed to me for sleep once every few YEARS...but now I wouldn’t do it if you paid me. Not worth the risk at all.

You are the most entertaining person on this forum! I'd love to work a shift with you because I think it would be fun to watch.....albeit likely a train wreck.

 

[deleted836128]

You are the most entertaining person on this forum! I'd love to work a shift with you because I think it would be fun to watch.....albeit likely a train wreck.

Train wreck, huh? Hopefully this was meant in an endearing way. I have many good train wreck stories, none of which involve patient care, though.