Case pg. 150

Maria,

First of all, I would like to start by saying I am in complete agreement with the drug testing policy. In our line of work it is imperative that our employees be at the top of their games when they come to work. Patients and doctors literally put their lives in our hands when they go in to a hospital. Every person who relies on our machines deserves to have the machine working at full capacity without any possibility of a life-threatening error occurring.

Doctors are expected to be at their best when practicing medicine, and so should our workers. If someone is under the influence of any type of drug, a wide range of skills may be affected including motor skills, cognitive skills, and reasoning. These are all essential to build a machine necessary to keep someone alive during a heart transplant. Morally, we cannot allow our technicians to manufacture substandard equipment.

So long as the testing is done truly randomly and fairly, I do not have any issue with requiring our employees to submit to a random urinalysis. However, some people may have an issue with the testing. In the entire history of our company there has never been any sort of issue over the use of drugs, or quality of our equipment. Some people may see this as too intrusive. The law does provide some level of protection against illegal searches and seizures. There may be a legal battle on our hands if this is not done delicately.

Another issue is requiring people to submit. Submitting to random drug testing was not part of their original employment agreement. Since it is an intrusive act, you may have to gain complete support from the company in order to go through with it. Perhaps making it a condition of hire would help ease the program in.

Sincerely,
Sean Smith