I recently received an offer for a position at a major hospital in Houston and had to go through all the pre-hire stuff, including a drug screen. I am currently prescribed a prescription that shows up on all the drug screens I've ever done. I always have had anxiety that this will cause me to lose a position in some way.
I'm panicking after what happened today.
-Last Wednesday (6/22) I went into the hospital's employee health clinic for my drug screen. I expressed my concern that I had prescriptions that will affect the results. I was reassured if I had it written down in my history everything would be fine.
-This morning (6/27) I missed a call from the hospital's HR department and then 2 hours later missed call from a 1-800 number. Since the 1-800 number left me a message instructing me to call, I gave them a call first. It was the MRO asking for verification of my prescription. They informed me I had 72 hours to submit proof. I submitted the proof immediately.
-In the next couple of hours I called my recruiter (assuming it had nothing to do with the drug screen) and asked if she had been trying to contact me this morning. She said yes that she was calling to inform me that I had positive drug screen (Note- before the MRO attempted to contacted me). I explained that the results were due to a prescription drug. She seemed confused: "What do you mean a prescription?" She seemed extremely judgemental, and disgusted with me. I didn't disclose the name of the prescription because as I was told by the hospital: My health information only goes to the employee health clinic. I expressed this situation panicked me. She replied "It panics us too." It was extremely hurtful. She obviously thought I was lying. She told me to contact her if I got that sorted out.
-I called the hospital's employee health clinic immediately after my call with my recruiter to inquire about the drug screen results. They were reluctant to help me, because apparently whoever normally deals with this "leaves at 3:30." I insisted; I told her HR had contacted me and that I was under the impression that this information would not be released to HR and was worried about losing my position. She then said "Oh we did just receive verification. I'll update your profile to show a true negative and let HR know. Someone from HR will be in touch with you."
-I waited 15 minutes then tried to call my recruiter back twice with no answer. I sent her an email to confirm she received the information and to confirm my start date. No answer yet. I'm afraid she has contacted my unit and nurse manager about the situation.
I did not think that HR was suppose to be aware of a positive result of a drug test until it was verified? Especially since this hospital has its own employee health clinic, and HR does not deal directly with drug screens. Agh. Could they take away my position? (I was going to have my offer rescinded before the MRO even had contacted me!) How is this normally supposed to work? Can anyone shed light on this situation? I am really upset that this happened, and hope it gets sorted out.
[Not happy at the idea of my boss hearing I had a positive drug screen, then hearing "Oh never mind, she is taking the drugs legally."]
Note again:This is a MAJOR hospital system that excels in employee satisfaction, one that I would not pin having this kind of confusion with.
I am not an expert on drug screening policies and procedures, but it is possible that the applicant was positive for a substance that would have been deemed unacceptable regardless of prescription.
An employer can disallow medications that might potentially impair an individual in a highly sensitive position regardless of prescription.
Occ Health Nurse here. The result is NOT supposed to be reported to the company before a good faith attempt is made to contact the pt. regarding a positive drug screen (usually 48-72 hours). The company is NEVER supposed to know that it is a "false positive." That was a huge no-no. As far as what your options are, unfortunately I'll be honest - I think there are none. You can take this higher and see if you can have the job offer reinstated but otherwise I think there really are no legal ramifications from this. Don't quote me on that though.
I'm really sorry that this happened to you. Please don't think that all of us in Occ Health think this way.
For jobs that aren't considered "safety sensitive", a drug test that is positive for drug but a valid prescription exists will be resulted as negative. Direct care nursing however is classified as a "safety sensitive" position, which means employers can test for certain drugs and be notified of a positive result with or without a valid prescription. So regardless of whether or not your employer chooses to actually prohibit certain medications even with a prescription, there is no requirement that prescribed medication use be kept secret from them which is the purpose of allowing a prospective employee sufficient time to present a valid prescription to an MRO. The test can be resulted as positive immediately, and then later clarified to be either with or without a valid prescription.
I recently received an offer for a position at a major hospital in Houston and had to go through all the pre-hire stuff, including a drug screen. I am currently prescribed a prescription that shows up on all the drug screens I've ever done. I always have had anxiety that this will cause me to lose a position in some way.
I'm panicking after what happened today.
-Last Wednesday (6/22) I went into the hospital's employee health clinic for my drug screen. I expressed my concern that I had prescriptions that will affect the results. I was reassured if I had it written down in my history everything would be fine.
-This morning (6/27) I missed a call from the hospital's HR department and then 2 hours later missed call from a 1-800 number. Since the 1-800 number left me a message instructing me to call, I gave them a call first. It was the MRO asking for verification of my prescription. They informed me I had 72 hours to submit proof. I submitted the proof immediately.
-In the next couple of hours I called my recruiter (assuming it had nothing to do with the drug screen) and asked if she had been trying to contact me this morning. She said yes that she was calling to inform me that I had positive drug screen (Note- before the MRO attempted to contacted me). I explained that the results were due to a prescription drug. She seemed confused: "What do you mean a prescription?" She seemed extremely judgemental, and disgusted with me. I didn't disclose the name of the prescription because as I was told by the hospital: My health information only goes to the employee health clinic. I expressed this situation panicked me. She replied "It panics us too." It was extremely hurtful. She obviously thought I was lying. She told me to contact her if I got that sorted out.
-I called the hospital's employee health clinic immediately after my call with my recruiter to inquire about the drug screen results. They were reluctant to help me, because apparently whoever normally deals with this "leaves at 3:30." I insisted; I told her HR had contacted me and that I was under the impression that this information would not be released to HR and was worried about losing my position. She then said "Oh we did just receive verification. I'll update your profile to show a true negative and let HR know. Someone from HR will be in touch with you."
-I waited 15 minutes then tried to call my recruiter back twice with no answer. I sent her an email to confirm she received the information and to confirm my start date. No answer yet. I'm afraid she has contacted my unit and nurse manager about the situation.
I did not think that HR was suppose to be aware of a positive result of a drug test until it was verified? Especially since this hospital has its own employee health clinic, and HR does not deal directly with drug screens. Agh. Could they take away my position? (I was going to have my offer rescinded before the MRO even had contacted me!) How is this normally supposed to work? Can anyone shed light on this situation? I am really upset that this happened, and hope it gets sorted out.
[Not happy at the idea of my boss hearing I had a positive drug screen, then hearing "Oh never mind, she is taking the drugs legally."]
Note again:This is a MAJOR hospital system that excels in employee satisfaction, one that I would not pin having this kind of confusion with.
OP what is the drug in question? If you don't mind me asking. There's no need to worry if it isn't going to affect your performance.
Even with the "correction" in the system, they can just make up an excuse and hire another applicant with a negative drug test. Companies will take the least risk possible when given the chance.
Your thought processs is exactly why employers are not entitled to employee health info, including drug screen results for meds employees have prescriptions for.
I am not saying you are wrong for thinking this way, just that you are by far not the only person who thinks this way. Hence why that info should not be disclosed.
Knowing what's meds they take puts the thought in your mind that they could be making errors due to being impaired. When in the same token, they could be a great nurse not given a chance due to bias.
And OP didn't disclose their medical condition. For all we know they could be bipolar or have ADHD or something that is well managed with their medication. Medication that when taken properly doesn't impair them at all. So assuming that the failed drug screen is for a med that will leave them impaired could be unfounded.
OP, I truly hope this gets sorted out for you and you don't lose the job because of a mistake with the MRO releases partial results of a drug screen.
As somebody else wrote - nursing is a safety sensitive job. And some medications can be excluded. I understand that there is bias and prejudice - but to be honest, if I was hiring, I would rather take the person with the negative drug screen. It is not a guarantee and many people function fine on medication but it is concerning for many reasons.
I am not an expert on drug screening policies and procedures, but it is possible that the applicant was positive for a substance that would have been deemed unacceptable regardless of prescription.
An employer can disallow medications that might potentially impair an individual in a highly sensitive position regardless of prescription.
No, they can't. The purpose of a drug screen is to identify people who are using substances illegally, period, and it was wrong (possibly illegal, but I can't say with 100% certainty) to disclose drug results before they were verified.
The hospital CAN have a policy that you cannot work under the influence of a controlled substance, but they CANNOT refuse to hire you for taking something you were prescribed while not at work.
OP, they've done you wrong, but it isn't rude of Pangea to point out that your anxiety and panic (I'm not trying to label you - just using your words) can affect your perceptions of the situation. Employee health isn't who you work with on the unit. The nurse recruiter isn't who you work with on the unit. HR isn't who you work with on the unit. But it will not help to harass people for not getting things fixed quickly enough. You said you wouldn't wait until the next day because the employee who deals with these things was gone for the day? (hard to tell, you said they leave at 3:30 but didn't say when you called) Then you called the recruiter twice in a row then e-mailed? Your fear and frustration are legitimate because they clearly crossed a line, but if your immediate response is panic, you are only increasing their concern that something is wrong, and feeding into any prejudice they may have. If your goal is to keep the job offer, put on a good face for them - even though they don't deserve it - and give them a day, not 15 minutes, to get things fixed.
If something like this happens again, you may want to simply say to HR (or whoever calls you besides the testing company) that you do not use any drugs illegally and you will contact the testing company to discuss results. Then the testing company will mark you as negative, and all the employer will know is that there was some sort of error.
You may also want to contact the testing company to file a complaint. Whoever returned the results to your employer without giving time to verify prescriptions is the one who started this mess.
For jobs that aren't considered "safety sensitive", a drug test that is positive for drug but a valid prescription exists will be resulted as negative. Direct care nursing however is classified as a "safety sensitive" position, which means employers can test for certain drugs and be notified of a positive result with or without a valid prescription. So regardless of whether or not your employer chooses to actually prohibit certain medications even with a prescription, there is no requirement that prescribed medication use be kept secret from them which is the purpose of allowing a prospective employee sufficient time to present a valid prescription to an MRO. The test can be resulted as positive immediately, and then later clarified to be either with or without a valid prescription.
I hadn't heard of safety-sensitive positions having different regulations. It makes sense in a way, but only if the drug test happens while you're on the job. It doesn't make sense that the employer could call it a positive drug test when you took a prescribed med at home days or weeks before you started work with them, and the occupational health nurse who posted seemed to be saying the same thing.
Being under the influence AT work is a different story, but I just don't see hour a pre-employment screen could work that way. There's certainly a lot I don't know, but I don't see how employers could get away without informing applicants that legally used drugs can come back as positive.
I had a situation along the same line a few years back - Offered a job, took the drug test & signed the paperwork allowing a background check, They said they'd call in a few days with a start date..
A week goes by & I called to see what was going on, I was told by my future boss, that they had "found out about my sexual assault conviction in another state".. lol, new nurse, just went through an FBI background check, wouldn't have a license if I was a sex offender!.. I was then told, "Well, if it's really *not* you, you can call these guys & have them verify their info".. The facility had used a $9.95 online background check service, that never bothered to verify any info, and the person they had flagged had been in jail for 20 years, and was, in fact, still *in* jail, in another state, not applying for nursing jobs. The actual offender had the same first and last name & year of birth, but different middle name & month/date of birth..
The facility would not provide me a copy of the report they were using to deny the job offer, after another week I was "cleared" and hired, but I really didn't feel like I got the "smudge" off my reputation, I'm not a sex offender, this wasn't an "expunged" conviction, this was bogus info that was flung out to an employer without verification & I actually lost a couple weeks pay because of it.
If I could have gotten a paper copy of what the facility was provided, I would have sued, just based on the principle.
Even if what happened in the O.P's case was legal, it wasn't kosher & might cause me to think harder about working for that company.
As somebody else wrote - nursing is a safety sensitive job. And some medications can be excluded. I understand that there is bias and prejudice - but to be honest, if I was hiring, I would rather take the person with the negative drug screen. It is not a guarantee and many people function fine on medication but it is concerning for many reasons.
It's not that people function fine on certain medications. It's that people function NORMALLY. Off these medications, they are much more of a liability than on them! I have a prescription for Xanax for anxiety. It's a tiny dose, I never take it within 8 hours of work, certainly never at work, but occasionally I need it to prevent myself from falling into a full-blown panic attack. In these situations, I'm far more impaired by the panic attack (during which I hyperventilate, can't move, and can't talk) than by Xanax. Again, I've never needed it at work, but there's a chance it could show up on a drug screen if I took it the day before. I'd be very upset if I lost a job because of it.
OP, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I have no words of wisdom for you - just know that you're not alone. People who don't have a mental health disorder, or don't have to take controlled substances to manage their health, often struggle to understand how these medications only impair a "typical" brain, and that they are, in fact, beneficial if they are truly needed. I hope everything works out for you.
OlivetheRN, ADN, BSN, RN
382 Posts
Something about this entire situation stinks like fish. I'm sorry OP.