Weekend & Stat Holiday Testing

Saturdays - Surrey and Vancouver Offices from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm (we kindly ask that you arrive by 1:00 pm). Sundays and Stat Holidays - Surrey Office from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm (we kindly ask that you arrive by 1:00 pm). *This applies to those of you who live in the Lower Mainland; for those of you outside of the Lower Mainland, arrangements will be made for testing and you will be notified of the specifics. Life Lab Collections Life Labs collects urine drug screen specimens Monday to Friday, between 9:00 am and 1 hour before closing (unless you have been advised otherwise).

What is Medical Monitoring?

Monitoring is not just an optional “support system”. It is an integral part of the continuum of care for the chronic disease of addiction and critical component of any effective contingency management plan.

The monitoring process enables individuals with Substance Use Disorders to return to meaningful employment, and facilitates progression towards a stable remission of the disease process.

What is Addiction?

Addiction is biological, psychological, social & spiritual disease that hijacks the brain placing continued substance use first over health, work, family, friends or other meaningful activity. The 4 (C)s of Addiction:

• Craving
• Loss of Control of amount or frequency of use
• Compulsion to use
• Use despite Consequences

How to Identify Addiction in the Workplace?

By the time the signs of substance use disorder are evident in the workplace the individual is often in late stage addiction. As an employer, it is not your role to diagnosis or make treatment recommendation. However, you are responsible for managing your employees: Behaviour, Performance & Attendance Changes to any of these may be clues to underlying health issues such as Substance Use Disorder. Ignoring the signs places your employee, co-workers, clients & business at risk. Actions

• Observe significant changes in behaviour, performance, attendance
• Discuss these changes with your employee in a neutral, non-punitive manner
• Inquire whether there is an underlying medical condition to explain these changes
• Offer resources to assist employee to be productively and consistently at work
• Follow-up to ensure your employee is getting the necessary medical assistance

What are the Drug & Food Restrictions when in Monitoring?

Download Documents below: The Medication Guide for a Safe Recovery This free Medication Guide for a Safe Recovery is used in hundreds of treatment centers and addiction medicine offices across the United States. It thoughtfully divides medications into three categories, A (Safe), B (Grey Zone) and C (Unsafe) for recovery. Patients, staff and families use this guide to ensure that medications they are prescribed will not reactivate relapse and derail their hard won recovery. In addition, this guide also contains a list of over the counter medications that do not contain alcohol. Download and take the guide to the pharmacy when selecting medications for symptom relief from cold, the flu and other conditions. The guide should be used to supplement and not replace the advice of your addiction physician and other professionals. Talbot Recovery Medication Guide for a Safe Recovery The Talbott Recovery Medication Guide for a Safe Recovery provides categorized products that should only be taken with the approval and the knowledge and consent of an addiction recovery physician. This is an updated version of the Earley guide, but does require completion of a form in order to download. Medical Monitoring Drug & Food

What is Chain of Custody Testing and Why is it Important?

'Chain of Custody' refers to the process of maintaining and documenting the handling of biological specimens. It involves keeping a detailed log showing who collected, handled, transferred, or analyzed specimens during the testing process. Chain of Custody processes document the exact steps in the collection of biological samples for legal purposes. This protects the individual who is being tested by providing valid government identification and ensuring the correct sample is tested for that individual.

What is a Relapse Prevention Agreement?

Requirements for monitoring are individualized to the specific needs and work requirements as detailed within the Independent Medical Evaluation, which usually forms part the Return to Work Process. These requirements form the basis for the development of a Monitoring Contract (Relapse Prevention Agreement). The Relapse Prevention Agreement is signed both by the employee and Precision Medical Monitoring and a copy of the agreement is provided to the appropriate oversight body, individual or organization. Regular reports are thereafter provided to the oversight bodies as part of the monitoring process.

What is a Medical Review Officer?

A Medical Review Officer is an independent medical expert who reviews the presence of non-negative urine drug screen results at any time during the monitoring period in order to clarify the result. The Medical Review Officer makes the determination whether a sample is positive or negative and generally involves a direct telephone call with the client as well as the ordering of additional tests as required.

What is Soberlink?

Soberlink is a mobile professional grade breathalyzer with wireless connectivity and facial recognition, tamper detection, and real-time reporting to the monitor. Soberlink is used to monitor individuals with alcohol use disorders and is a very effective tool to support sobriety. Soberlink is used by Precision Medical Monitoring in conjuction with Spectrum 360 compliance monitoring software.

Avoiding a Dilute Urine

Urine samples are called Abnormal if the creatinine is less than 20 mg/ dl and Dilute if, in addition to the low creatinine, the specific gravity is <1.0030 and > 1.0010. Both abnormal and dilute screens are of significance. These numbers are somewhat arbitrary but were chosen because most subjects must consume significant amounts of water to produce a specimen with a creatinine lower than 20 mg / dl. It has been noted that small muscle mass, being female, and exercise (when followed by increased water consumption) have been associated with lower urine creatinine levels. Urine dilution is of interest only because consuming large amounts of water in order to dilute urine with hopes of having negative urine is a common method to avoid detection. Dilution is also the method by which most of the OTC urine cleaners work. The problem with assuming that dilute urine is always due to attempted cheating is that many individuals drink large amounts of water for health reasons or simply to “be prepared” to provide a urine sample. Since dilute urines can be used to mask using, it is imperative to follow up on them. As a participant providing a urine sample, you can follow some simple guidelines to avoid providing dilute urine. These are:

• Avoid all diuretics – including caffeine – the day of the selection until AFTER the collection is done.
• Go to the collection site while the first morning urine is still in your bladder to use this as the specimen.
• If this is NOT possible than you should empty your bladder approximately 2 hours prior to your planned arrival at the collection site.
• During that time, you should NOT consume more than 24 oz of fluid and the fluid you do consume should be substantial fluid – milk, smoothie, tomato juice – and/or you eat a protein high meal or snack – egg, cheese, meat.
• By following these guidelines, you will help to avoid dilute and abnormal urines and ensure that the result of your test provides a valid indicator of your sobriety.