NTS Blog

While instant urine tests for drugs of abuse have improved tremendously over the years, the simple fact that it is still just a method of screening tells us that there are some limitations in the amount of information that they provide. Here we will discuss some of the obvious (and less obvious) reasons why laboratory confirmations should be considered a crucial part of your testing program.

If you’ve watched our “Understanding the Limitations of Drug Testing” webinar or have had conversations with me about that subject, you’ve heard me talk about substances that many people expect to be detected on the tests they are using, but actually are not.  An excellent example of this that we are all hopefully familiar with is Fentanyl.

Today’s subject was sparked from a conversation that our sales consultants have fairly regularly. Usually this comes up in the context of us pressing to find out why a facility is using the specific tests that they are using. The answer we get more than any other is some variant of, “it’s just the way we’ve always done it.” If you’ve had any conversations with our sales team, you know they won’t simply let that answer stand alone. It is always our mission to understand the needs of each facility we work with, but sometimes this can entail explaining why some of the thought processes behind those needs might be misguided, outdated, or missing crucial bits of information.