Keep your mouth shut.

[HTM Yaris]

F**k That . It is your obligation to ensure the safety of the patient . Your supervisor should be fired for not investigating . You should be ashamed of backing down .

I'm the supervisor in the OR where I work . I won't call you to my office . I will go to the lab and get a sterile specimen cup and then go straight to the suspected person and ask them to fill the cup with their urine if drugs are suspected . If you are suspected of drinking on the job I will escort you to the lab to get blood drawn . If they refuse or delay .......They will be fired immediately .

On the other hand , if a person comes to me and admits that they have a problem (without someone else telling me first), I will do everything to help that person . Yes , I will suspend that person without pay , but when they have completed rehab and counseling they can return to their job .

I have fired a couple of people for drugs/alcohol , one of them WAS a MD (Caught them stealing drugs ). Do I feel bad b/c someone decided to waste their career b/c they got high/drunk on the job ? NOT ONE BIT !!!!!! I take solace in the fact that I saved many people from potentialy getting PERMANENT damage .

Remember why you got into the health care field ? Because you care and you want to help people .

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by HTM Yaris

F**k That . It is your obligation to ensure the safety of the patient . Your supervisor should be fired for not investigating . You should be ashamed of backing down .

I'm the supervisor in the OR where I work . I won't call you to my office . I will go to the lab and get a sterile specimen cup and then go straight to the suspected person and ask them to fill the cup with their urine if drugs are suspected . If you are suspected of drinking on the job I will escort you to the lab to get blood drawn . If they refuse or delay .......They will be fired immediately .

On the other hand , if a person comes to me and admits that they have a problem (without someone else telling me first), I will do everything to help that person . Yes , I will suspend that person without pay , but when they have completed rehab and counseling they can return to their job .

I have fired a couple of people for drugs/alcohol , one of them WAS a MD (Caught them stealing drugs ). Do I feel bad b/c someone decided to waste their career b/c they got high/drunk on the job ? NOT ONE BIT !!!!!! I take solace in the fact that I saved many people from potentialy getting PERMANENT damage.

Where I work we are exposed to voltages up to 13,800 volts with the ground fault "trip" set at about 8,000 amps. That's about 100 megawatts, enough to blast off arms, legs and fry people instantly. I'm not cautious about this stuff, I'm paranoid and will indulge any obsessive habits that suit me, including checking stuff three and four times.

Obviously there is no room for intoxicated or stoned people in production. We have a lot of alcoholics in production but not a single one drinks on the job. We would not tolerate it as peers and before we begin any task we have a discussion with management. They are trained to check us for any deviations and will escort us to HR if we appear intoxicated and then we take a trip for a drug screen. No exceptions.

If anyone is involved in an accident it's an instant drug test. We do ours through a contractor, with the entire "traceability" thing, including signatures and so on. I was involved in an accident once and got the "treatment". Very minor accident but I still got the pee testing.

A "specimen" cup sounds a bit shaky, if only because it could be adulterated and thus is suspect in legal procedings. Probably better if you all obtain a professional grade drug screen kit, which includes labels and safeguards.

I'm surprised that you all don't have a rehab problem that includes paid treatment. Most places where I worked in Dialysis had the ole one month dry out, with full pay, but only one time.

Gene

[HTM Yaris]

The specimen cup I am refering to has a thermometer built in . If your urine isn't within a certain temp range you are asked to repeat . Also the toilets/faucets have blue dyed water ( Yes , we have special bathroom for that ) Not to mention someone of the same sex will be in the bathroom to witness . Most hospitals have a full laboratory , much better than a test kit . Test kits are also susceptable to false positives . Also a test kit can easily be fooled with Lasix ( used for congestive heart failure , it in effect draws water directly from blood cells). A lab will detect the Lasix , a kit won't . If you don't have a prescription for Lasix ,well then you're busted .

Word to the wise , Lemon poppy seed muffins will show up as opiates up to two days after ingested . This was proved on Mythbusters .

If you are suspended with out pay , it doesn't mean you can't draw from your retirement plan .

[HTM Yaris]

Oh yeah , one more thing . If someone out there is thinking of getting their hands on some Lasix to pass a drug test , think again , Lasix will deplete your body of "something" that is essential to your survival . Meaning it will kill you !!! Thats why Lasix is presciption only .

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by HTM Yaris

Oh yeah , one more thing . If someone out there is thinking of getting their hands on some Lasix to pass a drug test , think again , Lasix will deplete your body of "something" that is essential to your survival . Meaning it will kill you !!! Thats why Lasix is presciption only .

It's Potassium, and the means of computing how much to take to avoid dropping dead is pretty esoteric. A good Physician would tell you to go screw yourself if you asked them. A pill mill might help but if you drop dead it's on them.

Naturally there are workarounds for the workaround. If all else fails samples of hair can be taken. Those tests are expensive but lasix will not help you.

When it comes to drugs a body can run but they cannot hide. In the final analysis the monkey on your back will kick your ass if nobody else gets around to it.

Gene

[HTM Yaris]

Dude , you weren't supposed to tell them that

Back in the early 90's ( before we actually locked the drug carts in the OR ) , some vandal broke in to the OR and stole some drugs . What he didn't know was that he injected NORCURON , and as you probably know , it is a paralytic . His life ended in the parking lot . Must have been a horrible death , not being able to move or say anything while watching the world fade away .

[JBougie]

Originally Posted by HTM Yaris

Dude , you weren't supposed to tell them that

Back in the early 90's ( before we actually locked the drug carts in the OR ) , some vandal broke in to the OR and stole some drugs . What he didn't know was that he injected NORCURON , and as you probably know , it is a paralytic . His life ended in the parking lot . Must have been a horrible death , not being able to move or say anything while watching the world fade away .

Oh my gosh - that's horrible!

Well - kinda. It's natural selection really ... but it's still a really crappy way to go :( Do you think it was painful?

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by HTM Yaris

The specimen cup I am refering to has a thermometer built in . If your urine isn't within a certain temp range you are asked to repeat . Also the toilets/faucets have blue dyed water ( Yes , we have special bathroom for that ) Not to mention someone of the same sex will be in the bathroom to witness . Most hospitals have a full laboratory , much better than a test kit . Test kits are also susceptable to false positives . Also a test kit can easily be fooled with Lasix ( used for congestive heart failure , it in effect draws water directly from blood cells). A lab will detect the Lasix , a kit won't . If you don't have a prescription for Lasix ,well then you're busted .

Word to the wise , Lemon poppy seed muffins will show up as opiates up to two days after ingested . This was proved on Mythbusters .

If you are suspended with out pay , it doesn't mean you can't draw from your retirement plan .

Yeah, you got the "real deal". I've had several such tests and remember the thermometer.

Nobody will "witness" the test but the bathroom is tiny and you're timed and the toilet water is blue. When we're asked to be tested we're under constant observation from the time we get hurt until we submit a specimen. We seal and sign the sealing tape. You don't get any time to pump some "clean" urine into your bladder. Ain't happening.

I hate drug testing but not as much as working with someone who could kill me by screwing up.

A few months ago some clowns decided to hook up a machine. They had three phase power, over 5,000 volts. They hooked up one end of a set of high voltage "cables" to the gadget and another set of cables to the power station.

The punchline being that they hooked up two different sets of cables. One end of each set went "no where", which meant that one set was just dangling out there in the breeze with over 5,000 volts on them.

They threw the switch, the system reacted, damaging an overload device and melting it internally. This device also knocked down the power. Thank God nobody was near the ends of the cables that had power on them, it was pretty dramatic.

We usually have a separate party of senior folks check your work before we apply power. That's a policy which some guys sometimes neglect. These guys circumvented the process. They were given little notes of appreciation in their employee files, everyone was retrained and then life went on.

Another thing that happened after this "incident" was that a whole bunch of guys refused to work with the guilty culprits. We have the right to do that, rejecting such folks because they're "dangerous".

Gene