Continuous Quality Improvement and AOD Programs

oral fluid drug test

Continuous Improvement or Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a strategic approach to managing change by recognising incremental and measured improvements. It is a method of self-analysis in which validated assessments are completed, and the results are used to make the necessary incremental changes that work towards desirable outcomes.1 Applying this concept to the Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) program means driving the organisation to a substance free workplace by continually improving AOD program policies and procedures, while strengthening an organisational culture that promotes a substance free workplace.

Informing Decisions

In CGI, each improvement implemented drives the process, system, or program to a better condition or state. The assessment process ensures that changes, cultural and otherwise, are sustained over time and that the effort to reach goals continues to improve over the long term. Each assessment becomes a method for informing decisions as to the next steps that should be taken. The Continuous Improvement process applied to the AOD program can ensure:2

AOD policy and procedures reflect industry and legal standards

Improve the validity of assessments

Enhance relevance of the AOD testing procedures

Increase transparency of the drug and alcohol program

Ensure there is regular feedback to employees after testing

Support quality assurance

Improve management of the AOD program

Guide worker training on the AOD program

Guide management training on AOD program

There are different ways to assess the AOD program. Benchmarking against industry leaders is one valuable assessment tool. However, benchmarking is mostly used by larger companies because it requires considerable resources that include commitments of personnel, software, data collection and interpretation, and so on. Even if resources are not available for elaborate benchmarking, small to medium size companies can still apply the principle of CQI to their AOD program.

Asking Questions Over and Over Again

It is not uncommon for companies to put onsite drug testing AOD testing in place and deal with results one-by-one without looking at the big picture. An employee tests positive for heroin and is temporarily suspended until completing rehab. Three weeks later, an employee in the same department tests positive for cocaine. The same type of event keeps occurring. Though there is follow-up with each person, the real question is: Is there a pattern of substance use in the department? If so, why? Once the “why” is uncovered, the next question is: What should we do about it? Once that question is answered, a change is implemented. The change may impact work processes in the department, frequency of drug and alcohol testing, definition of safety sensitive positions, revision of the Employee Assistance Plan, or any of a number of other things.

CQI is a transformation process, meaning it is ongoing. One of the important steps that should be taken is ensuring that drug & alcohol testing supplies are top quality and that AOD screenings are completed by an experienced qualified company. These are important steps for ensuring the results are accurate.

However, CGI involves assessing every step of the AOD program on a continual basis. It has employers asking the question, “How is the AOD program going, and can it be better?”

Program assessments can lead to changes step-by-step, including tweaking a policy, revising a random testing schedule, or enhancing program management or employee training. The important point to note is that the tweaking, revising, and enhancing will occur over and over again as the assessment indicates is necessary.

CMM Technology helps employers everyday in their efforts to maintain a substance free workplace by providing stringently tested AOD products and high quality expert services like equipment calibration. Producing accurate AOD testing results is a critical step in the CQC process.

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/continuous-quality-improvement-and-aod-programs/

Benchmarking D&A Programs to Increase Acceptance

Saliva Drug Test

Some things never change because they are based in solid business principles and practices. Benchmarking is one of them. It is a process designed to give business leaders a method for assessing organisational results against similar companies in the industry and has specific goals. Benchmarking increases accountability, increases commitment at all levels, and promotes a proactive rather than a reactive approach to whatever is benchmarked. Drug and alcohol programs and health and wellness programs are two areas that can benefit from benchmarking. Linking the two programs together and applying benchmarking increases effectiveness, results, and acceptance across the organisation.

Support for health, wellness, and safety programs has to begin at the top of the organisation and flow downward. An important element of occupational health and safety is maintaining a drug and alcohol free workplace. Benchmarking can play a critical role in making the business case for the programs, but it also provides information that enables the programs to be placed in context. This increases acceptance because it gives staff members something to compare against. It is the difference between saying, “The policy is no drugs and alcohol allowed,” versus “The policy is no drugs and alcohol, and self-analysis indicates our processes and procedures are effective (or need improvement).”

Beyond Statistics

Though it is important to have a drug and alcohol policy, it is also important to make sure that people understand that occupational health and safety and drug and alcohol testing are not simply programs to be managed. They are integral to business success as concepts that have the most impact on performance. As such, they are considered management systems involving much more than simple statistics like number of positive drug testing or number of accidents involving alcohol. Systems also involve policies and procedures, risk assessments, training, resources commitments, job design, and so on. 

Benchmarking does not just compare statistics between the organisation and world class industry leaders, though it is commonly viewed that way.

When benchmarking is used properly and applied to occupational health and safety and drug and alcohol programs, it will produce the type of information that strengthens them. That information includes better understanding of the current structures and systems; identification of system strengths and weaknesses; identification of barriers to success; goal setting; comparison of processes and systems against industry leaders; and acknowledgement of best practices.1 For example, the evaluation process may uncover a workplace layout that needs revision to lessen stress and thus reduce the probability of drug use. Or it might indicate the random drug and alcohol testing program is not effectively linked to the occupational health and safety program and so acceptance of testing is low. There might be issues raised about the workplace culture, pre-employment screening process, work practices, or follow-up procedures when an employee test positive for one or more substances.

The Big Picture

Too often, businesses design and implement programs but fail to evaluate their effectiveness over time, and this is particularly true for occupational health and safety programs and drug and alcohol policies and procedures. Effectiveness in this case refers to the much more than simple test counts and comparison of results to industry leaders. Programs are evaluated as whether employees voluntarily adopt healthy lifestyles, worker attitudes toward the drug free policy and testing program, minimisation of workplace risks, and so on.2 Drug and alcohol programs are a component of the larger OHS program and together they should form a top down management system.

It is impossible to cover the benchmarking process in a single article, but an excellent resource is the Worksafe Australia manual titled Benchmarking Occupational Health and Safety. The main point to keep in mind is that benchmarking involves much more than simply comparing statistics. It is a process that focuses on evaluating and strengthening management systems. When applied to drug and alcohol policies and procedures, the process links them to the bigger health and wellness processes. The end result will be stronger program in terms of effectiveness and enhanced worker understanding of its broader role.

One of the many areas that can be benchmarked includes accuracy of drug and alcohol test results. CMM Technology supplies businesses with NATA accredited equipment and is the only company in Australia that is NATA accredited for various types of breathalysers.

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/benchmarking-da-programs-to-increase-acceptance/

This Is No Technical Article

Saliva Drug Test

Medix integrated pro-split cup 6+6 urine drug test with built in adulterant test, Rapid STAT saliva drug test, and Lifeloc FC10 personal breathalyser devices are just a few of the types of drug test equipment and alcohol tests that CMM Technology has available for businesses which wish to protect themselves with high quality employee drug testing. Know that you cannot protect with drug testing, but that you can protect with decisions based upon your screening results that you get in.

This article, however, will not be technical in nature. Once again, CMM Technology would like to discuss the whole reason for even using drug test equipment: the humans who work for us.

People are in and of themselves fragile and incomplete. When we are complete, then we are ready to either die or move on to new levels of growth. Whatever the case, though, there is not a perspective on humans which seems to interact with the technological base of drug testing. Thought processes seem to either see science and numbers or people and human nature, but never really both. We would like to emphasize the strength in people, as well.

We would like to talk about how much people need employee drug testing, because it helps them feel safe when they are at work, as well as actually making them safe. We want to mention, in addition to this, how proud we are of our current business clients, for their growth, and their tenacity, and their will to become better companies.

That is something toward which to strive. Yes, we are NATA accredited for our breathalyser recalibration services, but we want to make your business our business. We have no shame in being at the lowest levels of company development, because, whatever the case, we are still a part of your development. That is so important.

CMM Technology takes pride in our products, and we take pride in our sister company, Mediscreen. However, most of all, we take pride in you, the businesses we serve and we produce the equipment to evaluate and data collect. If you want employee drug testing, place an order with us. 

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/this-is-no-technical-article/

The Twelve Step Program and How It Changes Over Time

Urine Drug Test

When a drug addict or alcoholic seeks help through a twelve step program, they are looking for a tiny amount of relief from their pain. Over time, they receive much more than this tiny amount of relief. However, they cannot have huge expectations of the program at one time, because it is designed to be used one day at a time, little by little, until the addict has peace and stability.

Unfortunately, many people drop out of their twelve step programs before they are completed and before they have reached the peace they desire and deserve so much. In fact, for experienced people who have been in their programs for many years and have refined their peace over this long period of time, the coming and going of newcomers is quite common. They know that not everyone stays, and that those who do may not remain for the period of time which they have.

Let’s talk about the experienced program followers, then. They will say that if you work the program and really do your best, over time you will accomplish a great deal, but that you must stick with it over time. Some of them even say that the program changes over time, but that part is not quite true.

You change as a person, and therefore receive different benefits from the twelve step program over time. You change and therefore the program “seems” to change, because you are getting more and more benefit out of it.

At CMM Technology, which is NATA accredited for breathalyser calibrations, we feel that there are many times when a company, during its growth and change, will need employee drug testing. Just because you have had no change in employment and no positive test results in the past five years does not make it any less of a company liability if someone is injured on the jobsite due to intoxication in some manner. We therefore provide breathalyser recalibration services, as well as drug test kits and saliva drug test.

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/the-twelve-step-program-and-how-it-changes-over-time/

The Sounds of Silence

We have all heard the notorious song by Simon and Garfunkel. It is something of a legend, actually. However, for anyone who has ever been given the silent treatment, it has a whole different connotation. It is jarring to the ears. It seems unnatural. You wonder what is wrong.

When substance abuse infuses a workplace, it may not get louder and more party-like. It may get quieter and lazier. What can you do when your employees are all sitting around apathetically and very casually doing their work? What do you do when everyone seems to be permanently depressed?

Well, first of all, you make sure there wasn’t a death in someone’s family. Now that you have that out of the way, start looking for practical solutions. There may be some sort of substance abuse. Employees may all be having a hard week at the same time, and someone started the trend. Maybe the trend continued and people stopped caring about their livelihoods. Whatever the case, you will need to do something about it, but you can’t without information.

Our Lifeloc FC10 breathalyser device and our Rapid STAT saliva drug test are especially popular, but we have products from all over the spectrum of drug test equipment, and we are here to help you get what you need when you need it. If you have a regular drug testing schedule, then you may find it helpful to have a standing order, but it is often necessary to just order when supplies begin running low. Drug test equipment should always be stored a little in excess, just in case an emergency pops up where you will need to screen a particular worker. On-site drug testing especially has need for high quality drug test equipment, and CMM Technology is most happy to oblige.

The sounds of silence do not have to hold sway in your building. Your jobsite can have happy, talkative voices again. The difference is in the stability of your employees. Make sure that it’s strong.

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/the-sounds-of-silence/

The Smoke after Fires

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In a heated argument, we often say and do things we later regret and even feel rather silly for doing. The smoke after the fire can choke and maim and do more damage than the actual fire did. If you can hear certain things and realize they are not personal, then great. If you can experience specific insults and not be highly offended, then this is wonderful. However, it is not very often that you find someone who, being lashed out at, won’t lash back. It isn’t very common for someone to hear the worst insults on this green earth and not respond with some manner of attack, even if it is only a gentle attack.

There are limits to which humans can push each other.

Accepting the faults and quirks of your coworkers can be a trying experience, but it builds character and perspective on human nature. You understand people in general better when you experience a lot of different personality types at once. Work can actually help make you into a better person because it demands that you learn about other humans just by dealing with them on a regular basis. The more people you have to deal with, the more it builds your character and your sense of tolerance. Of course, if your employees abuse alcohol or drugs, they do not have this added advantage of being able to build their tolerance. They feel inadequate at all times, which in turn makes them feel really incompetent.

They lash out.

And when people lash out, the smoke lasts long after the fire.

Take the time to look at drug test equipment and companies which provides breathalyser recalibration in Australia. CMM Technology demands the highest quality from our drug test kits and our alcohol tests. We believe in our products. We believe in our standards. Employee drug testing does not have to be just another method of deterring abuse on the worksite. It can bring your real results and accurate data. We recommend our own products, of course.

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/the-smoke-after-fires/

The Dreams of Little Children

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Little children are always symbols of hope and carefree days. They typify a time in our lives when we had no troubles. Of course, if you really think back carefully, you will remember that you had little child problems, which seemed just as important to you as your adult problems do now.

Little children dream and wish and create all kinds of good things for themselves, often being very happy with the simplest of toys and always being amazed by all of the wonderful things around them which they are experiencing for the first time. Children are what make going to work every day worth it. When you have kids, you have a sense of belonging to a greater world and a wider purpose than you ever thought you belonged to before parenthood. Kids bring their simple, unemotional perspectives to your world and remind you that not everything has to be so complicated.

This is especially true when people are abusing drugs or alcohol in your workplace environment. They take on more than they can handle, or they think they do, anyway, and this leads to enormous problems when it comes to fulfilling deadlines, being on time with reports, maintaining a professional attitude, and loving what you do for work.

There are so many ways in which a business can improve its business experience, and this is found through many business studies which have been done over the decades. However, the primary role that employee drug testing takes in the improvement and simplification of the attitude in your workplace is undisputed by all. There are so many ways in which the simple act of drug testing improves your workers that we may not even be able to list them all there.

For one, though the screening process itself doesn’t keep anyone from abusing drugs or alcohol while on the jobsite, it definitely shows employees that a standard has been set which must be upheld.

Secondly, it improves morale, because it shows everyone that you will hold all of them accountable for their duties, and that if one of their coworkers begins to behave erratically, you will hold them responsible for their behavior, no matter what the orgin. You can see, the list can go on and on.

For more information, or to place an order for drug test equipment, call us today. We even have NATA accredited breathalyser recalibration services for your alcohol test.

This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/the-dreams-of-little-children/