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WHAT ITEMS ARE CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES LOOKING FOR IN A TEST LABORATORY? REDWOOD TOXICOLOGY LABORATORY AND NORCHEM LABORATORY PROVIDE ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION.
Wayne B. Ross, MCLS, CLS, MT (AAB) is the chief toxicologist at Redwood Toxicology Laboratory, Inc. (RTL), Santa Rosa, Calif., and Rebecca M. Gibbs MT(ASCP), is the quality assurance officer at Norchem Laboratory, Flagstaff, Ariz.
1. The Laboratory should be certified, licensed and accredited by state and federal agencies.
RTL is licensed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (CLIA '88) and numerous state health service departments. It is important that the laboratory be appropriately licensed for the type of testing being performed, such as SAMHSA licensing for workplace, and CLIA for correctional/probation/ treatment, according to Ross.
Below are explanations of the two acronyms mentioned above, plus another acronym, CAP-FDT, mentioned below.
The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act of 1988, better known as CLIA, was enacted to ensure that all laboratories provide accurate results for medical diagnosis and treatment decisions and established a single set of requirements that apply to almost all laboratory testing of human specimens though not as much to forensic specimens.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) certification arose in response to the demands for scientific and technical standards for federal workplace drug testing programs and for the certification of laboratories engaged in such testing. SAMHSA guidelines make clear they do not apply to drug testing performed under any legal authority other than mandatory federal workplace drug testing.
CAP-FDT: College of American PathologistsForensic Drug Testing certification was developed to fill the gap between CLIA and SAMHSA to assure the protection of individual rights and the legal defensibility of forensic drug testing performed outside the limited context of federal programs.
Gibbs points out the difference between laboratory certifications: forensic certification (legally defensible results) versus clinical certification.
SAMHSA and CAP-FDT are forensic certifications, and CLIA is clinical, according to Gibbs. The lab should be CLIA at the very least, but CAP-FDT is most appropriate for correctional facility drug testing.
SAMHSA looks at only five drug categories: amphetamine/methamphetamine (ecstasy); cocaine; opiates (codeine, morphine, and heroin); tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); and phencyclidine (PCP). Gibbs notes that SAMHSA has very specific cutoffs...