Mothers were reported after they were given medications used routinely for pain or in epidurals, to reduce anxiety or to manage blood pressure during cesarean sections.
Here we go again more stories about hospitals and CPS services using faulty and/or cheap means of testing to “comply” with regulations at the expense of patient. Why am I not at all surprised. I used to do this testing and when the process is done correctly it works. Here’s how it’s supposed to be done. First off you get a urine from Mom on admissions BEFORE giving any medication. Then you get the meconium and urine from baby after birth. You screen all three and confirm any positive screen with a more stringent confirmation test. Then you compare the three results to get a full picture of any drug usage that may be going on. Mom’s urine will tell you if she’s using within the last 3-5 days depending on the drug with the exception of THC which can stick around longer. Meconium gives you a window of drug use that might have occurred from the second trimester and on. It’s not great to test it on its own because it’s suspectable to faulty specimen collection. (I can’t tell you how many times I got a cup of baby shit instead of real meconium. Real meconium looks like plastic, has the consistency of a mallomar, and usually has a mucus plug attached.)Then you test the baby’s first urine output to determine if they have active drug in their system now. Use all three results together to interpret the big picture. At NO point do you ever give providers the screen results before confirmation. Hospitals and legal entities should be sued into oblivion for prosecuting innocent people over bad procedure and screening results. This shit irritates me to no end.
We can also blame the DEA for putting massive amounts of pressure on hospitals and drs for NOT doing these tests, even if circumstances didn’t allow, or wasnt a priority(emergency c sections for example)
So the hospital breaks the protocol you laid out for us otherwise the DEA can come in and audit the hospital and if they don’t like what they find, like missing drug tests, they can take doctors liscences to practice and drag that hospital through the dirt. It’s fucked up how much power they have and how detrimental they’ve become to healthcare.
My doctor is forced to drug test me because of a medication I take. The last time she did it she apologized and said the DEA was auditing them this month and she had no choice. Those drug tests are like $500 if you don’t have insurance, and a lot of private insurances won’t cover it. If they won’t I have to sign a paper saying I’ll pay for it. If I don’t do this I don’t get life giving medications for a neurological disorder I was born with.
DEA mandated drug tests are unethical and provide very little benefit… if any at all. It just makes every patient feel like a criminal. Let doctors use their best judgment. It’s better than the alternative… which is this.
Oh I absolutely agree. Gabapentin being one of those “scheduled” and monitored drug about broke me in the lab. Like no one is purposely getting high off of that shit. The Sacklers ruined pain management for everyone and I hope they all burn in hell.
Here we go again more stories about hospitals and CPS services using faulty and/or cheap means of testing to “comply” with regulations at the expense of patient. Why am I not at all surprised. I used to do this testing and when the process is done correctly it works. Here’s how it’s supposed to be done. First off you get a urine from Mom on admissions BEFORE giving any medication. Then you get the meconium and urine from baby after birth. You screen all three and confirm any positive screen with a more stringent confirmation test. Then you compare the three results to get a full picture of any drug usage that may be going on. Mom’s urine will tell you if she’s using within the last 3-5 days depending on the drug with the exception of THC which can stick around longer. Meconium gives you a window of drug use that might have occurred from the second trimester and on. It’s not great to test it on its own because it’s suspectable to faulty specimen collection. (I can’t tell you how many times I got a cup of baby shit instead of real meconium. Real meconium looks like plastic, has the consistency of a mallomar, and usually has a mucus plug attached.)Then you test the baby’s first urine output to determine if they have active drug in their system now. Use all three results together to interpret the big picture. At NO point do you ever give providers the screen results before confirmation. Hospitals and legal entities should be sued into oblivion for prosecuting innocent people over bad procedure and screening results. This shit irritates me to no end.
We can also blame the DEA for putting massive amounts of pressure on hospitals and drs for NOT doing these tests, even if circumstances didn’t allow, or wasnt a priority(emergency c sections for example)
So the hospital breaks the protocol you laid out for us otherwise the DEA can come in and audit the hospital and if they don’t like what they find, like missing drug tests, they can take doctors liscences to practice and drag that hospital through the dirt. It’s fucked up how much power they have and how detrimental they’ve become to healthcare.
My doctor is forced to drug test me because of a medication I take. The last time she did it she apologized and said the DEA was auditing them this month and she had no choice. Those drug tests are like $500 if you don’t have insurance, and a lot of private insurances won’t cover it. If they won’t I have to sign a paper saying I’ll pay for it. If I don’t do this I don’t get life giving medications for a neurological disorder I was born with.
DEA mandated drug tests are unethical and provide very little benefit… if any at all. It just makes every patient feel like a criminal. Let doctors use their best judgment. It’s better than the alternative… which is this.
Oh I absolutely agree. Gabapentin being one of those “scheduled” and monitored drug about broke me in the lab. Like no one is purposely getting high off of that shit. The Sacklers ruined pain management for everyone and I hope they all burn in hell.