HMMMM.....What the Heck!

Nurses Recovery

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So I'm really not sure what the Heck is going on. I got pulled for an Option 1 drug test today, and every single container was corrupted. The containers were Opened, had freakin plastic wrap over the the cup, were smashed and had obvious and discreet breakage. TWENTY TWO containers!!! I refused to use any of them. And the one I did use, I don't feel confident was actually sterile!! I did email my CM about this problem, but I'm sure I'll be the one with a "problem" instead of the facility. To top this day off, I got an email from my CM that my supervisor didn't email in my quarterly report. He told me he did. AND, my Affinity website said it was sent on 4/9/18. My CM said to make sure this gets done ASAP... well.......TPAPN & Affinity...YALL are the ones who switched to strictly online /email reporting forms which took us out of the loop....SOOOO.....again, we get the short end of the stick by not being able to figure out what is going on :(

So how are we supposed to know what is going on when ummmm, almost a month after the fact our CM emails to say we are out of compliance???? HECK HECK HECK!!!

Omg this just terrifies me! After what just happened to Persephone, this scares the crap out of me! So glad you noticed and didn't accept the bad ones. I really hope the cup you got was ok. Option 1 is usually quick, you should get a result by Thursday I'd say, so let us know! I'm out of town right now on a TPAPN approved trip, so I expect to be tested as soon as I get back. I will definitely start looking much more closely at the specimen cup I choose!

As far as the quarterly report, I could've told you this would happen. Some idiot in management who has no concept of what life in monitoring is like made the moronic decision to disallow our participation in getting the quarterly report from the manager to TPAPN. They're idiots. Of course that crap is not gonna get done. I would just say that I've talked to my manager and she assures me that it was sent in. Actually though, you can look at your manager's report in Affinity (if she did indeed submit it). So go into Affinity and pull it up and screen shot it. (You should be able to click on it where it shows the date submitted). Because obviously since they took away the responsibility of faxing in those reports, now they are going to continue to hold us responsible for something we have to part in. Brilliant.

This is just like having the management staff make decisions about how things should work on the floor. These are people who are either non clinical or at least might have a clinical background but the last actual clinical shift was a decade ago.

Lordy, my reports are still faxed in...YET every. single. month. I get a piece of certified snail mail listing who is delinquent in sending my report in. Every month. Complete with a nasty deadline for the delinquent paperwork and a list of super threatening repercussions for me if it does not happen.

They could just fire off a trek mail, which has an automatic read receipt, but nooooo... I get to sign with the mail man every dang month instead. And every time it happens, everyone complains to me that they already faxed it. So my job, docs, and counselors have to double fax almost every month.

Makes my blood boil every darn time.

Specializes in OR.
Lordy, my reports are still faxed in...YET every. single. month. I get a piece of certified snail mail listing who is delinquent in sending my report in. Every month. Complete with a nasty deadline for the delinquent paperwork and a list of super threatening repercussions for me if it does not happen.

They could just fire off a trek mail, which has an automatic read receipt, but nooooo... I get to sign with the mail man every dang month instead. And every time it happens, everyone complains to me that they already faxed it. So my job, docs, and counselors have to double fax almost every month.

Makes my blood boil every darn time.

Some little goblin of a clerk has to justify the existence of thier job by filling out tons of little green certified mail cards and sending them out asking for information they've already got.

I wonder why they do that? We go through Labcorp in Florida and the big cup we use to pee in contains the two little split specimen cups and the bag. Only a few times has the tech dropped one of the split specimen cups on the floor and pulled an 'xtra' from out of the drawer? Why do they even have extras? I will never, ever not be extra cautious from here on.

Specializes in OR.

This is one of the reasons why I make a point to go only to a Labcorp for these dang things. As if it's not bad enough that I have to puke up $55 to have it done, I refuse to pay still more to any other entity to add yet another layer of worry about chain of custody issues.

Plus I have seen the same people at the same lab for the last however many years. While this experience has certainly taught me to trust NO one, I can have some reasonable certainty that my pee was handled correctly from the time it exited me to it getting sealed up in its nice neat little baggie. I guess that's about the best I can hope for.

So...My test came back negative... Thank you Jesus!!!

However, this has really made me feel like I need to be super vigilant regarding specimen collection. I never really thought that much about it, but now I really want all of my collection receptacles to be absolutely tamper free.. But that may not be realistic! How often have we gone for our tests, and the split screen vials have just been sitting out or pulled out of a drawer, and how can those also be deemed "secure"??? I know it's really kinda dumb, but I feel like there are a lot of opportunities to have our specimens not meet the actual chain of custody requirements or be tampered with. I have NEVER been one to feel like there are conspiracies, but I will never NOT question the container given to me for drug testing!

Yay! I was thinking of you and your test result today, since I was also selected to test today. I am always given the choice of which specimen cup to choose, but yes, it's just out of a non secure drawer. I did look very closely at my cup today though!

Specializes in 911 critical care ambulance nurse.

I snail mail everything to a monitor's specific name. Communicate by email and hard copy all paperwork.

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