The drug screening process must be strictly supervised and controlled to ensure the validity of the test results obtained from each sample. To ensure you get the most accurate results that you know you can trust, use CLS Diagnostics, based in Franklin, Massachusetts, which is a specialist toxicology testing service for health professionals. To discuss any aspects of the drug screening process, give the lab a call or book an appointment online today.
Drug screening is the initial phase of a drug testing process that can tell you if your patients have traces of any illegal substances or prescription drugs in their system. Screening determines whether any metabolites remain from recent drug use, and if positive, the sample is subjected to more tests using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).
Drug screening is a valuable tool for medical professionals. As well as caring for patients addicted to illegal narcotics, patients with varying levels of dependency on prescription drugs are also becoming a major issue for health professionals across the United States. Using screening tests to check a patient’s adherence to their prescription medication or rehabilitation program is a fast and efficient way of monitoring their progress, enabling you to identify and address any issues promptly before they cause more serious effects and become harder to treat.
CLS Diagnostics supplies you with all the materials you need and arranges training sessions so the staff who’ll be taking urine samples can do so correctly.
It’s vital that the samples are handled with care as demonstrated during your CLS Diagnostics training to avoid any contamination of the test results. It’s also important that the samples aren’t tampered with and no attempt is made by the patient to manipulate the results.
Once collected, your staff ships the urine sample securely to CLS Diagnostics for testing. When it’s received at the lab, the sample is taken to the testing area within the lab for analysis using enzyme immunoassay technology.
The toxicologists at CLS Diagnostics confirm a negative immunoassay screening test result within 48 hours of receiving the sample.
If the immunoassay result is positive, the toxicologists automatically carry out further tests using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis.
The LC-MS/MS test results provide more detail about the findings from the positive immunoassay, which are sent to you within 72 hours of receiving the initial sample.
Find out more about the benefits of drug screening by calling CLS Diagnostics or booking an appointment online today.
