03 Jan 09 LabCorp Drug Test – We Need Your Help
This is an email I recently received from a LabCorp employee. If you are familiar with workplace drug test laws and LabCorp drug testing policy, please post a comment with your recommendations. They are appreciated.
“I was recently told that I needed to take a drug test. The following is what happened.
I was called in to do a drug test and K–, my immediate supervisor, handed me a cup and told me to go into the bathroom. So I did. I wasn’t worried, because I hadn’t taken anything. During my Drug Test K– left out of the room leaving someone else there (that was not administering the test) and came back to complete my drug test. There were other drug test sitting on the table that were done before mine. Later, I found out I was suppose to seal the lab bag, but I didn’t, K– did, I guess after I left the room (not sure). I went back to my meeting. It just so happen that E– (the employee K– said she wanted to give my job to) was there on the day of my drug test and several other days, which she was suppose to be on medical leave of absence.
With K– and my history (we do not have a good one), I do not feel as if she was the right person to be giving me a drug test. I don’t know.
Almost three weeks after the drug test, K— told me that she needed a copy of my prescription medication Adderall, she said that Adderall showed up in my drug test. That extra test were run to determine it was Adderall. She also said that copy of the prescriptions was missing from my personnel file. I told her that Adderall could not have showed up in the drug test, because I have not taken any Adderall. I told her that I have been taking Phentermine and asked her if she wanted that prescription. She said “no”. I immediately requested another test. I was never contacted by a Medical Review Officer or “Loss Control” to determine about any medication that I was taking.
I told K– that I would get a copy of the prescription, since she said that would clear me. I went to my office and called Wal-Mart to get them to fax me over a copy. I was in the hall and — asked me again about the prescription in front of another employees (unprofessional behavior?). I told her that Wal-Mart pharmacy had just opened and they said it would take about 30 minutes to get the copy. I decided to go to Wal-Mart and get the list my self. I went to look for K– and she was out side smoking with T– and N–. I told her I needed to go to wal-mart for a minute to pick up something. She said that was fine. I went to Wal-Mart and got a copy of my prescription medication and placed them on Ka–’s desk.
She called me to her office and told me that the copy from the pharmacy would not work and said all I needed to do is to find the original bottle with the original date on it and bring it to her, and I could keep my job, otherwise I would be terminated, she would have to notify the board of nursing, and that I would lose the rest of my vacation and sick pay. She knew I was about to take a week off for Christmas.
The next week, I took the Phentermine bottle to her. She said, ” Is this the bottle.” I told her no, but this is the Phentermine bottle, which should have showed up. She said, “Keep trying to find the bottle.” A few hours later, I brought the original Adderall bottle to K–. She was at lunch, so I left the bottle with Ch–, and asked her to get K– to call me. Ch–, DON called me later and said K– said the bottle will not do because I should have brought the bottle right in and it did not have any medication in the bottle. I told her to tell K–, I did not take the medication. (I had the extra medication from the bottle, but I did not know I needed to give it to K–. They were taken out of the bottle before I took the bottle to K–.)
I have been getting phone calls that, K– has been telling people she fired me for failing a drug test, that I was taking my childrens’ Adderall (K– did not know that my children have not been on Adderal in over 4 months or that I do not take the medication due to a reaction it causes on me.), and that her and HR has already fixed one drug test for me (I thought it was against the law to fix a drug test??). Other employees have also seen my drug test results on the fax machine, she has been making phone calls to other management about me with employees in the office.
I believe they know I am a single parent and have to keep my job, so they could do what they want and I would not quit.
What is the drug testing chain-of-custody?
No one had ever asked me for a list of my medication or if I was taking anything. Was this appropriate for her to have mentioned my test results in front of someone else? HIPAA?
How do I find out if they are DOT regulated? How long does it take to for the results of a urine drug test ?
Why would Adderall be showing up instead of the Phentermine? Would something else be causing the Adderall to show up?
Please help me!! I do not know what to do!! My reputation as a nurse and my children is what really means the most to me. I worked hard all those years and all I care about is that everyone knows I am not the worker they made me out to be.
What can I do???? If anything???
LabCorp is the ones that ran the test!!“
Tags: drug testing, LabCorp Complaints, LabCorp Employees, LabCorp Jobs, LabCorp Stories
Reader's Comments
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WOW! I am so sorry you had this experience. So many things have gone wrong with this I don’t know where to start.
I am an owner of a company that does drug testing for employers. We are located in Sarasota and Lakeland, but as we are a franchise we have many locations across Florida and the United States.
ANY LAB TEST NOW
http://www.anylabtestnow.com
The first REALLY bad thing that went wrong with the test is that your immediate supervisor and employer did the test. I send all of my employees to my competitors to be tested. This takes out any chance of foul play with administering the drug test. In any case, your immediate supervisor should not have administered the test. For the very reasons that you have issues with, it can be a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Second, any drug test done for employement should always include a chain of custody. The chain of custody is a LEGAL document that attaches the specimen to the donor. As such, the collector that signs the form is certifying several things, these are stated on most forms. Here are a few:
1. ID was verified
2. Donor watches collector pour specimen from collection container into specimen bottle.
3. Collector caps specimen and affixes label over specimen.
4. Collector dates specimen label and DONOR initials.
The last part that the collector is certifying is that the specimen belongs to the donor. Here is where another break down occurred. There is no way that the collector could certify that the sample provided was yours if she was out of the room. From your letter, I am not sure which one of the people you mentioned signed as collector.
Also, there should never be other drug tests stored where you were returning yours to. The custody and control form requires secure storage at the completion of the test, which ends when the donor signs the form. Neither the collector nor the donor should ever lose sight of the urine until the labels are applied to the specimen and the test is complete.
I can only guess that the reason you were never contacted by a Medical Review Officer (MRO, a doctor that oversees a drug test and ensures its integrity) is that the test did not include one. An MRO immediately contacts the DONOR before the employer is notified of any issues. For instance, if your initial test came back \”non-negative,\” meaning the first screen showed a prescription or other drug, the MRO would immediately contact you and ask for the prescription. Most MROs are required to attempt contact with the donor for three days at least three times a day before making any final reporting.
A collector (or employer, for that matter) should NEVER have access to any prescription medications that you are taking. If there is an issue, it is for the MRO to begin sorting out, not an employer.
Is there an MRO name shown on the form that you were given at the completion of the test?
I can only surmise, since I don\’t know the circumstances, that in an attempt to save money, LabCorp is administering its own drug tests and not using an MRO.
Both of the pharmaceuticals that you mention are amphetamine class drugs and most likely would show as a positive in an initial screen. At this point, an MRO would normally ask for your doctor\’s information and the pharmacy that you used in order to verify the prescription. The bottle is not necessary.
Discussion of any clinical treatment drugs in the workplace is a gross negligence of HIPAA. This should immediately be reported to your supervisor\’s supervisor.
To be certified to do DOT urine drug collections, a collector must be certified by a DOT certified collector trainer. Unless your job is covered by the DOT, you would not fall under these regulations. Anyone who is a certified DOT collector should have a certificate of proof.
I cannot speak for other companies, but my company, ANY LAB TEST NOW, usually has urine drug test results back in 24 hours or less. If there is an MRO involved, it can take up to four days due to the necessity of allowing the MRO time to contact the donor if needed.
There are also rapid drug screens available which can give results in as little as four minutes. An MRO would not be involved in most cases with these.
I would suggest two things:
1. Hire an attorney. It is very unlikely that the results of this drug screen will hold up in court if everything that you have stated is true.
2. Come to an ANY LAB TEST NOW facility. You can have a hair drug test done WITH an MRO. This test will show a 90 day history of your drug usage. It will test for amphetamine class drugs. If you were taking prescription medication, the MRO will certify the results as negative by talking to the pharmacy or your doctor.
At ANY LAB TEST NOW, you can walk in and request any test that you need. The results can be admissible in court if you need them to be. ANY LAB TEST NOW offers walk in testing to the general public. We also do paternity testing and any blood test. Some of our most popular blood tests are cholesterol, PSA, CBC, and HIV.
If you would like to do a hair test, please contact:
info@anylabtestnow.com
and mention the LC Sucks website.
If you are able to come to Lakeland or Sarasota for the test, I will offer it to you for $100 off of our list price of $189.
I wish luck in the future.
Why ever would you give to them, your childrens old bottle of Adderall in in the first place? Didn’t quite make sense there at all. Is poor decision making in critical events why they wanted to get rid of you? Anyway, I agree with AnyLabNow. This whole issue was NOT handled correctly by you nor your supervisor!
Everything described by the alleged Labcorp employee above is contrary to Labcorp policy. ALL Labcorp employee drug screens are handled under chain of custody and all non-negative sample results are reviewed by a MRO. Given the lack of specifics, circular references and lack of a coherent and plausible story, it is doubtful that any of the email is factual. Laura Bradbury and her facility appear to be knowledgeable in drug testing. If the un-named “employee” would provide more of a specific and accurate history perhaps I could help answer this.
DOES ANYONE NOW IF LAB CORPS HAS ANY ISSUES WITH INACCURATE(WRONG) PATERNITY TEST
RESULTS IT IS A FEELING BUT I AM NOT SURE IF IT EVER HAPPEND
If other people saw your medical information from a fax machine or your supervisor disclosed information about the test, it is a violation of HIPAA and you should take action against LabCorp for violation of your rights. Supervisors are considered “agents of the company” since they are salary and LabCorp is responsible for answering for their mistakes. Should you get an attorney, make sure he or she is well versed in medical rights! All the employees that looked at that fax are also in violation.
First of all the person who started the drug screen is not suppose to leave and send another person in to finish. I start I finish. you were suppose too have watch from begining to end. specimen sealed and then sign. You were suppose to have been told the procedures of the collection before starting. Like they told you. It was alot wrong with the collection. also I am a collector and I do not get the info about any clients medication. when they try to force it on me, I tell them if they need that infomation they will call you. Some people get mad but, that is how I handle that situation. You also do not bring your medication bottles to your job or the site because the MRO will handle that with the Pharmacy once the get that information from you. So it was another problem behind this. Even though the collection was handle the wrong way.
Labcorp sucks. They recently came into my office to conduct drug testing on employees and they were having open cups all on the table of urine and several tests were mixed which resulted in me having a dirty urine when I am clean
Why dont people visit the Lab that is handling their specimens. ITS Horrific what goes on in the Elmhurst Lab . I am a former employee who witnessed Supervisors, Group Leads, and employees pass around parts of a fetus . This was not a part of their job duty , they used some mother’s pain as amusement .
This is what happened when companies promote dumb asses as leaders.
Lab Corp is the worst place I ever had to work for. The Supervisor is a wasted , uneducated, controlling,racist, inhumane piece of crap.
that is a violation of the hippa laws and you have a lawsuit on your hands if you can prove it happened
any lab test now first responder to this lab sends their sample to lab corp…
so why respond bradbury?
Wow. Just googled for some info r/t MRO documentation and found this topic. Similiar situation happened to me in TX. Called for random test on 2/11/08, TPAPN participant for 20 of the required 24 months, lab office was very busy, sent me to the staff bathroom, did not follow COC policy like they normally did every other time, record temp, divide into two vials, seal each one, I initial each and confirm COC #, then sealed in biohaz bag and COC sticker applied, initial that sticker, then put on the big orange sticker (program participant ID I assume) and placed into the box and ready to ship. This time, they took my cup, unlabled, and set it on a cluttered work area with two other open urine spec’s near mine. Suddenly, I’m pos for Morphine!
What? Was not notified of results until the 17th and my Case manager from TPAPN called me at home to ask for my excuse. I had to call LabCorp and get the number for their MRO, who called me a week later, the dirty urine, long since discarded, so no way to confirm what happened. I told MRO that the only thing I had done was eaten lemon/poppy seed muffins the day before (3 tiny ones) and had not worked since before Christmas, no access to Morphine and only other meds were BCP seasonale and MVI. So, had to restart the program over again, another 2 years, and still dont know what the MRO reported to TPAPN. Was told by MRO that I would not get a copy of his findings, they go to the Case Manager. So now I find that this is not an isolated incident!!. Quest Lab ran the test, bought out by FirstLab, but Lab Corp has been taking my labs 2x’s a month since 6/06. BTW, the girl who took by lab and left it there only worked there for 2 months, then quit. Then they started cracking down on procedures!!! I’m MAD!!!
Hello All,
I am writing to let you know that I am currently disputing paternity results on my child in which Labcorp provided the results of the father not being the father. I have to pay out of pocket 650.00 just to gain accurate results to provide to the courts to obtain child support!! Anyone else who has had this problem please let me know, I am considering legal action for this inaccurate result not has cost me money I don’t have, but distress for I have had to deal with a lot of negative actions due to inaccurate results…
Desk person, who also took my blood, had hair that looked like she had been electrocuted, wore a sneer on her face and did not answer when I said, “Good Morning”.
The next time I went I asked not to be ’served’ by her, but receptionist had bad attitude when I singed in on the wrong form – it was the ONLY form available at the counter. Entering a person’s blood stream and removing a sample is intimate if nothing else and should be done by someone at least polite,in an atmosphere that is not hostile. The unemployment rate is atrocious, but these people manage to have jobs – what’s wrong with this picture? Can’t leave my name because I have to go back there.