§ 1-161. Review of test results.  


Latest version.
  • (a)

    Medical review officer. The Ouachita Parish Police Jury shall select a medical review officer, who shall be a licensed physician responsible for receiving laboratory results generated by the drug testing procedure who has knowledge of substance abuse disorders and has appropriate medical training to interpret and evaluate an individual's positive test result together with his medical history and any other relevant biomedical information.

    (b)

    Review of drug testing results. All positive results of drug testing, except pre-employment testing, shall be reported directly from the laboratory to the medical review officer as provided in this chapter.

    Positives on the pre-employment drug-testing may be reviewed by the medical review officer. If the parish chooses not to confirm a positive test result of a pre-employment drug screen test, the parish shall notify the applicant of the positive drug screen test and shall offer the applicant the opportunity to pay for confirmation of the test and a review of that confirmation by the medical review officer. Negative results need not be reviewed by the medical review officer and shall be reported to the appropriate representative of the parish.

    The medical review officer shall review all confirmed positive drug testing results of employees and report such results to the parish in compliance with NIDA guidelines or pursuant to the authority granted under Louisiana R.S. 23:1081 et seq. and 23:1601 et seq. Negative results need not be reviewed by the medical review officer and shall be reported to the appropriate representative of the parish.

    Adulterated specimens shall be reported as such to the medical review officer with clarification as to the specific nature or the adulteration. The medical review officer shall contact the individual who submitted the specimen as outlined in the NIDA guidelines before making a final decision to verify a positive of [or] report an adulteration.

    (c)

    Rights of the employee. Any employee, confirmed positive, upon his written request, shall have the right of access within seven (7) working days to records relating to his drug tests and any records relating to the results of any relevant certification, review, or suspension/revocation-of-certification proceedings.

(Ord. No. 8431, 5-20-96)