New employer requires I bring my antidepressant Rx and get "cleared" from my MD

cdsavannah59, CNA · Sep 21, 2015

Dude, I am in my state's monitoring program for nurses and even they aren't that anal retentive. No company is going to routinely drop the sort of money those sorts of tests on every potential employee.

I'm not so sure about that. I know I did a physical upon hire at the hospital I work at , and they drew labs, so hard to say just exactly what all exactly they tested for. They also required list of medications, so maybe it's possible they only test those that are on certain meds and make sure it's at therapeutic level. States and hospitals don't always follow the same procedure as others for hire.

cdsavannah59, CNA · Sep 21, 2015

At every hospital I've worked at you get tested for both illegal drugs, and opiates/benzos, legally prescribed or not. This isn't for "every potential employee", just for safety-sensitive positions. There was also a pretty good chance you'd get tested for opiates when returning to work following medical leave. Adding a medical drug screen onto the drugs of abuse panel is actually relatively cheap.

I agree. I know at the hospital I now work at, my preemployment physical I had to do lab work and they required medication list also. Who knows what they used my lab work for, maybe people on certain meds are routinely checked to see if they take a therapeutic level, or misuse of it..

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2015

At every hospital I've worked at you get tested for both illegal drugs, and opiates/benzos, legally prescribed or not. This isn't for "every potential employee", just for safety-sensitive positions. There was also a pretty good chance you'd get tested for opiates when returning to work following medical leave. Adding a medical drug screen onto the drugs of abuse panel is actually relatively cheap.

This was in reference to running a blood panel for wellbutrin not the standard drug panels done with a UA.

SookieBSN · Sep 22, 2015

Dude, I am in my state's monitoring program for nurses and even they aren't that anal retentive. No company is going to routinely drop the sort of money those sorts of tests on every potential employee.

Although there are some monitoring boards that are in fact that anal. It does not take a large amount of money to test for many, many different medications. You can get a very thorough urine drug test for just under $100 through FirstLab. Take OTC Benedryl while participating in one of the monitoring programs on the East Coast and not have a "prescription" from your doctor to use it, and the monitoring program will not be pleased. The whole reason they don't tell you what they are testing for is because they expect you to be honest up front.

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2015

Although there are some monitoring boards that are in fact that anal. It does not take a large amount of money to test for many, many different medications. You can get a very thorough urine drug test for just under $100 through FirstLab. Take OTC Benedryl while participating in one of the monitoring programs on the East Coast and not have a "prescription" from your doctor to use it, and the monitoring program will not be pleased. The whole reason they don't tell you what they are testing for is because they expect you to be honest up front.

I think Benadryl is a pretty common drug to be tested for in monitoring programs? Mine was up front that they tested for it so we had better not be on it. I think Labcorp sells a test specifically to be used on healthcare providers that tests for benadryl, phenergan, and something else...I can't remember what.

While I have been in the program long enough to realize that doing a blood test for Wellbutrin levels is not out of the realm of possibilities, I can't imagine any program where *that* sort of intensive monitoring would be routinely required of everyone. The blood tests alone end up being a couple hundred dollars from what I remember.

From a cost perspective, I would imagine that having to add every one of the dozens of SSRIs, SNRIs, mood stabilizers, and anti-psychotics to even an urine drug screen WOULD add up. (As would simply running every UA through a GC/MS the first time around which would eliminate a lot of false positives but isn't done.)

ORRN21 · Sep 25, 2015

This occupational health is part of the hospital, not an outside company.

scgle, ASN, RN · Oct 12, 2015

Good luck on the confidentiality agreement..

scgle, ASN, RN · Oct 12, 2015

I worked for an occupational health company and for private companies for years. We mostly tested for benzo's, opiates, THC, and ETOH for pre employment UDS.

NurseStorm, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2015

I think Benadryl is a pretty common drug to be tested for in monitoring programs? Mine was up front that they tested for it so we had better not be on it. I think Labcorp sells a test specifically to be used on healthcare providers that tests for benadryl, phenergan, and something else...I can't remember what.
While I have been in the program long enough to realize that doing a blood test for Wellbutrin levels is not out of the realm of possibilities, I can't imagine any program where *that* sort of intensive monitoring would be routinely required of everyone. The blood tests alone end up being a couple hundred dollars from what I remember.
From a cost perspective, I would imagine that having to add every one of the dozens of SSRIs, SNRIs, mood stabilizers, and anti-psychotics to even an urine drug screen WOULD add up. (As would simply running every UA through a GC/MS the first time around which would eliminate a lot of false positives but isn't done.)

Can you explain what this monitoring program is? I have never heard of this (Canadian, lol). I find all of this incredibly invasive. I'm surprised it is legal and well accepted..

(*edit* after a bit more thought, I'm thinking this is a recovery monitoring program? I was thinking it was a standard hiring practice in some states or something, but please clarify if possible :) )

cdsavannah59, CNA · Oct 21, 2015

The cost of lab work for employers to screen you at a hospital such as urine sample or blood work a lot of these posts on here say they are expensive and not cost effective for hospital to test a lot of the new hires, employees for certain drugs. I'm betting the hospital gets a good decrease in lab fees and or since it's their hospital and the run the labs themselves it might not cost them anything other then the supplies needed to do the testing, just my opinion.