Point of care testing for drugs and alcohol
Point of care (POC) testing in a general sense is defined as:
‘Medical diagnostic testing at or near the point of care – that is, at the time and place of patient care.”
Basically it means conducting a medical test there and then; removing the need for samples to be analysed in a laboratory. This makes testing a lot more cost-effective and dramatically reduces waiting times. Obviously there are cases where laboratory testing is needed, but point of care testing definitely has its place within the drug and alcohol testing industry.
In the UK & Ireland for example, the need for point of care testing regarding drugs and alcohol comes from research which suggests that both can be directly or indirectly associated for 40% of accidents in the workplace. Per year, up to 17 million working days are lost due to alcohol related illness, costing the economy an estimated £7.3 billion. Onsite testing puts companies in a stronger position to identify drug and/or alcohol misuse and associated risks quicker – making their workplace safer.
The actual tests themselves can come in a few different forms. Breathalysers are used for alcohol testing and drugs can be tested from urine or oral fluid samples in an instant test kit. These instant methods can usually test for a range of drugs with some kits offering more panels than others. Each panel represents a different drug and a test will give a negative or non-negative result for each panel.
Our point of care products
At Randox Testing Services we use and supply a range of alcohol testing products to enable on-site testing for immediate results. Our breathalysers are Home Office approved, legally defensible and used by police services and workplaces worldwide. They are designed to meet the unique and rigorous requirements of evidential breath testing to ensure accurate results, and are complete with user friendly features to ensure a reliable instrument for your testing needs.
Our instant oral drug tests can simultaneously test for up to 10 panels and our urine tests up to 14. Our kits are highly specific, accurate and reliable. As a market leading product they are CE marked for quality and can be customised to meet specific needs. This gives you the ability to select what you want to test for, allowing your testing to be flexible and reactive.
In cases where an instant test is not suitable or the results require laboratory confirmation, we also offer a back to lab service. This means that you can collect the sample on site and then send it to one of our UKAS/ISO17025 laboratories for analysis. With our strict and robust chain of custody procedures and fast turnaround times, we can provide a legally defensible service from start to finish.
Not only do we equip our customers in providing them with high quality tests, we also support them; providing training and consultancy. We offer a wide range of courses from management awareness to full chain of custody training to ensure accurate collection techniques are followed for each sampling method using all devices. These devices include hand held breathalyser units for alcohol testing as well as urine and oral fluid devices for drug testing.
If results need to be used as evidence in court we can provide expert witness reports, and ensure accurate results with provision of a medical review service. We also provide a range of services to assist you in developing your testing solutions. This includes a consultancy service where we can offer advice and guidance for writing a substance abuse policy (or write one for you together with appropriate procedures and guidelines) as well as a range of training and education programmes tailored to your requirements.
Our customers also have our laboratory facilities at their disposal. To give clarity to tests, samples can be sent to us for further analysis. Our analytical work is accredited by UKAS to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for Testing Laboratories, making our lab the most accredited in the UK.
Contact us today at testingservices@randox.com for more information.