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Preemployment drug screening in a large metropolitan medical center

A one-month trial

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Abstract

To assess the prevalence of illicit drug use among job applicants, a large metropolitan medical center conducted preemployment drug screening of all applicants during January 1988. Urine samples from 172 preinformed applicants were screened using Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique (Emit® d.a.u.™) followed by confirmatory gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry. 4.1% of tests were positive for marijuana and/or cocaine and none was positive for beroin. Positive findings increased with decreasing socioeconomic status. The findings suggest that applicants for jobs in large medical centers in metropolitan areas are no different from those in other sectors of the economy with respect to illicit drug use.

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Authors
  1. Donald Angehr Smith MD, MPH
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  2. Raymond Hanbury PhD
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Additional information

Received from the Mount Sinai Medical Center, Box 1014, One Gustave Levy Place, New York, New York 10029.

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Smith, D.A., Hanbury, R. Preemployment drug screening in a large metropolitan medical center. J Gen Intern Med 6, 558–560 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02598228

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02598228

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