Statistics show that employee use of drugs and alcohol is on the rise (regardless of your practice size or location). Once identified, the challenge is knowing when the situation justifies taking action and when it doesn’t. It all comes down to reasonable suspicion. Drug and alcohol use.
Drug and alcohol use isn’t often as apparent as a staff member stumbling around your office or taking covert sips out of a tumbler at their desk. In some cases, you may not be the one who identifies the behavior. Instead, another employee may notice concerning conduct that flies under your radar and bring it to your attention to investigate.
Before you move forward, you must be able to determine whether the incident meets the criteria of reasonable suspicion and is actionable or not. There are times when opening an investigation can spell serious legal trouble for your practice, and you must know the difference.
Reasonable suspicion defined:
Based on the information you receive or witness, a reasonable person could come to the same conclusion. This is much more than a hunch; reasonable suspicion requires you to point to the specific evidence used in making your decision to take action.
Allegation Documentation Drug and alcohol use
When you receive a report of potential drug and alcohol use at your office, it is important that you record the details in writing and add it to the offending employee’s file. Even if the initial accusation doesn’t reach the level of reasonable suspicion, keeping a detailed record will allow you to compile data that may eventually lead to action.
Here are several vital elements you should consider including when you document an allegation that one of your staff saw a colleague consuming alcohol on the job:
- Date and time of the report
- Reporting employee’s name
- Name of the offending employee
- Date of the incident
- Time
- Location
- Details of the incident
- Other observable evidence, such as drugs or alcohol in plain sight, a smell, or any additional information
- If the reporting employee has pictures, be sure to include them
Note: Documenting the date and time of the report in your notes is extremely important. Should you take action based on the information you receive from this first allegation, it will provide you with proof should you need it. If you don’t take action, and there ends up being multiple allegations over time, the dates and times will help you show a pattern of behavior.
When to Take Action
The more obvious and first-hand the observations, the better. So, a report from an employee that their co-worker is slurring their speech and smells of alcohol is better from an actionable standpoint than hearing that an employee suddenly burst into tears with no known cause.
Warning: Be very careful using a one-time report of an employee’s emotional state as a reason to suspect drug and alcohol. Anything from a bad day to a death in the family can cause enough stress for an emotional outburst. So, don’t jump to conclusions.
Each claim of drug or alcohol use must be evaluated based on its own merits, with all factors of each report weighed individually. While you may see a pattern emerge over time, be careful to look at how detailed the documented evidence is before you take action.
Here are some conditions that can justify a report qualifies as reasonable suspicion:
- Personal Observation: You have seen – with your own eyes – the employee engaging in concerning behavior, slurring their speech, or another hallmark of drug or alcohol use.
. - Credible Report: An employee comes to you with a credible, first-hand report of another staff member’s conduct, appearance, speech, or odor. This may include statements such as “Jane smelled strongly of alcohol when she returned from her lunch break” or “Mark is regularly in the bathroom for a very long time, and today when he came out, he had powder on his nose.”
. - On-Site Possession: An employee is seen in possession of drugs, alcohol, or paraphernalia during the workday. This may include someone spotting these items in plain sight in a desk drawer, handbag, trash can, etc.
. - Lingering Odors: If the odor of drugs (such as marijuana) or alcohol lingers in an area with controlled access (such as a locked supply closet or secured area of your practice) after an employee’s presence in that area.
. - Frequent Disappearances: An employee frequently disappears during the workday, either to the restrooms, private areas of your clinic, or to their car.
. - Unexplained Emotional Outbursts: A normally even-keeled employee becoming overly emotional with no known cause, such as unexplained angry outbursts or uncontrolled crying.
When NOT to Take Action
Not every case of potential drug and alcohol use is actionable. It is just as important to know when NOT to take action when you are trying to determine reasonable suspicion as when to move forward.
You may need to consider the source carefully. Does the person reporting the drug or alcohol abuse, for example, have a strained relationship with the person they accused? If this is the case, you may need to step back and re-evaluate the report more closely before deciding whether to act.
Here are several situations that may cause an allegation that an employee is abusing drugs and alcohol to fall below the level of reasonable suspicion:
- Guilt by Association: Simply being associated with someone known to use drugs or alcohol isn’t enough evidence to act. Just because the accused employee is friends with a known drug user doesn’t mean she is using those same drugs. More actual evidence of the drug or alcohol abuse at your office is necessary to build a credible report.
. - Rumors: The rumor mill can spin up quickly, but that doesn’t mean that everything in the report is absolutely true. To make rumors actionable, you must have first-hand evidence that points to actual drug and alcohol use on the job.
. - Poor Performance: While a pattern of poor performance may indicate that your employee is using drugs or alcohol during the workday, especially if she hasn’t had prior performance issues, there could also be other factors at play (i.e., lack of training, stress at home, problems getting along with other staff, etc.). To figure it out, go and talk to the employee. You don’t have to ask them if they are using drugs. Simply ask them about their behavior or performance.
Dealing with suspected drug and alcohol use at your office is sensitive. It’s one you must handle swiftly and professionally to protect your patients, your employees, and your practice. Don’t get caught unaware of the proper way of handling these cases. Doing so can lead to patient loss, high employee turnover, billing errors, and an overall hostile work environment for everyone.
To learn more about effectively dealing with employee drug and alcohol abuse, including how to create and implement office policies that reduce your legal and financial risk, check out Healthcare Training Leader’s online training, Manage Staff Substance Abuse without Violating Employee Laws. In this 60-minute training, employment law attorney, Kelly Holden, JD, covers what you should include in your practice’s Drug and Alcohol Policy and how to implement it correctly. This online training is immediately available for you to access.
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