Drug Testing

MEDIQ Urgent Care offers fast, simple Drug Testing in Archdale, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem.

Employers often require drug tests for numerous reasons, whether it’s to screen potential employees or even due to reasonable suspicion of employees. For many employers, employee drug testing is an important process to the service that they provide, especially if the employee is charged with performing a task in which safety could be an issue. For example, any employee that operates a vehicle or heavy machinery should be drug tested on a somewhat regular basis to ensure the safety of their coworkers and customers.

How are Drug Tests Performed?

The most common way to perform a drug test is via a urinalysis. This can be done at either the employee’s workplace or at our urgent care clinic. During a urinalysis, the employee must provide a sample of urine to be tested. Several precautions will be taken to prevent adulteration of substitution of the sample, such as by turning off the water supply or putting blue dye in the toilet.

The sample is then sent to a certified laboratory, where it will be tested for the five substances and alcohol that are tested for in Federal drug-testing programs. The sample is often split into two, so that if the initial screening shows positive for one of the tested substances, the second sample can be screened as confirmation.

Who is Given Access to the Drug Test Results?

Drug screening results are considered personal health information. The employee will need to sign a release in order for their employer to have access to the information.

Types of Drug Tests

The most common type of drug test is the urinalysis, but there are a number of other methods for drug screening as well, including:

  • Breath tests – Employees can be screened for alcohol using a breathalyzer test that records the BAC (blood alcohol content) of the person.
  • Blood tests – Blood samples are generally a better indicator of the recent consumption of drugs than a urine sample. However, most drugs are quickly cleared from the body’s blood and deposited into the urine, which is why urinalysis tests are more common.
  • Hair tests – Hair tests can actually identify drug use over a longer period of time than both blood and urine tests. In fact, they can identify drug use over a 90 period day.

Other drug screening tests include oral fluid and sweat tests, although these are not as accurate as the aforementioned tests and are rarely administered in workplace environments.

Drug Testing with MEDIQ Care

For more information about our drug screening process, contact our office in Archdale, Greensboro or Winston-Salem.