drug testing

[Tjaq15]

A friend of a friend is having a baby soon and I was wondering do they drug test upon admission? , do they watch you pee in a cup ? She is a really sneaky person and anyway she can get away with switching urine etc , she will.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

I work on a general medical / cardiac / pulmonary unit.

While collecting urine recently, I had a patient ask if she could sign saying that she did not consent to a drug screen, but could we do a pregnancy test for her while we were at it?

She did have a UDS ordered (and pregnancy and urinalysis), and I told her that she couldn't refuse the drug test, but that we didn't do anything with the information other than treat her medically -- we don't send it to the cops or anything like that. If we're going to be giving her medications, we need to know what we're dealing with, and that's the reason for the test.

In order for a drug screen or blood alcohol test to be legal for court purposes, it has to go through specific chain-of-custody requirements, and tubing a container of pee to the lab doesn't meet that criteria at my facility.

[KJoRN81, RN]

My hospital tests the cord blood. Whether there is suspicion or not.

[Anonymous865]

Your patient had a legal right to refuse any test, procedure, drug, or intervention including a UDS.

The hospital/physician can choose not to treat if the patient refuses the test.

I work on a general medical / cardiac / pulmonary unit.

While collecting urine recently, I had a patient ask if she could sign saying that she did not consent to a drug screen, but could we do a pregnancy test for her while we were at it?

She did have a UDS ordered (and pregnancy and urinalysis), and I told her that she couldn't refuse the drug test, but that we didn't do anything with the information other than treat her medically -- we don't send it to the cops or anything like that. If we're going to be giving her medications, we need to know what we're dealing with, and that's the reason for the test.

In order for a drug screen or blood alcohol test to be legal for court purposes, it has to go through specific chain-of-custody requirements, and tubing a container of pee to the lab doesn't meet that criteria at my facility.

[Extra Pickles]

Your patient had a legal right to refuse any test, procedure, drug, or intervention including a UDS.

The hospital/physician can choose not to treat if the patient refuses the test.

which is what would've happened if that patient had been on my unit and refused the UDS. Doctor would have told her that if she refused to be tested so we could get a baseline for the purposes of medications and procedures she could sign out AMA. if we were doing the UDS and the patient wanted a pregnancy test the doc would always order that because if pregnant it would probably affect the treatment plan. But without consenting to the UDS there would be no pregnancy test and there'd be no treatment at all, she'd be leaving.