City considering switch in drug screen provider

Homewood city leaders are discussing whether to make a switch in providers of drug screens and possibly worker’s compensation services.

Harold Parker, who has been overseeing the city’s drug screens for decades, told the city’s finance committee that he’s unhappy with the services being provided by Ascension St. Vincent’s, whose occupational health clinic services the city as well as 13 other municipalities.

Parker said long wait times are keeping employees from getting back to work, along with other issues. Parker and other city officials said a majority of the problems with St. Vincent’s lies with their drug screenings, not their work in providing worker’s compensation services, such as physicals.

The city pays $10 per drug test and an additional $35 to the clinic’s lab per test, City Clerk Melody Salter said.

Mike Smith, director of clinical operations at St. Vincent’s, said the clinic operates a freestanding emergency room for employees, and as such, employees coming in for a drug test likely won’t be a priority if someone comes in with a medical emergency.

Employees might also be kept longer if they struggle to produce a specimen for the drug test, Smith said. Once an employee is sent for a drug test, they cannot leave.

The average wait time in 2022 was 37 minutes, said Kim Starling, director of staffing for employer solutions at St. Vincent’s.

Starling said a nationwide plastics shortage is impacting every provider of drug screens when it comes to collection cups. Parker, she said, was made aware of this shortage.

When problems do arise, Starling said the company has owned up to it and explained it to the city. Out of somewhere between 200 and 300 drug screens provided to the city, Starling said St. Vincent’s only identified five that had what she described as “inappropriate” wait times.

Parker said he’s worried about the city being involved in a lawsuit if an employee feels they’ve been harmed by St. Vincent’s practices. He said he was not satisfied with the explanations St. Vincent’s offered to the committee.

Finance committee chair Walter Jones, who did not return calls for comment, wasn’t satisfied, either.

“This is worse than I thought,” Jones told Starling and Smith at a Dec. 19 meeting. At a Jan. 3 committee meeting, Jones said the wait times were “unacceptable.”

“The credibility of our drug program is at stake,” Parker said.

Starling said she’s proud of the work the company’s employees do.

“We’re very, very proud of our programs, and I think we do an exceptional job,” Starling said.

Starling also told the city there are other options for drug screening, such as Walgreens, if they want to separate that from St. Vincent’s other services for the city.

Fire Marshal Brandon Broadhead, the department’s liaison with the company for worker’s compensation purposes, is urging the city to not part ways with St. Vincent’s.

“I don’t have any complaints,” Broadhead said.

The company has gotten firefighters back to work faster, Broadhead said, and any small mishaps that have occurred have been addressed.

City Council President Alex Wyatt said the path forward is yet to be determined. More conversations will be held, but the option of separating drug screening from worker’s compensation services might not be as simple as it sounds.

“Often, the two are related,” Wyatt said.

In addition, providers are making money off of both and any splitting of services could impact rates.

Wyatt remains unconvinced of St. Vincent’s explanations. The data shown by St. Vincent’s doesn’t match anecdotal evidence provided by department heads and Parker, he said.

The issue will remain on the finance committee’s agenda until further notice, Wyatt said.