Support Center

If a required directly observed drug test collection cannot be completed at your site, you can transfer it to another Med-Stop location. The most common reason is that a same-gender observer is not available when one is required.

When a directly observed collection is required

As the collector, you must immediately conduct a collection under direct observation when (49 CFR 40.67(c)):

• the DER directs you to do so;
• you observe materials brought to the collection site, or conduct by the employee, that clearly indicate an attempt to tamper with a specimen;
• the temperature of the original specimen was out of range; or
• the original specimen appears to have been tampered with.

The employer also directs observed collections in other cases, such as return-to-duty and follow-up tests and certain results reported by the MRO (49 CFR 40.67(a) and (b)).

Observer rules

• Explain the reason for the directly observed collection to the employee (49 CFR 40.67(d)).
• The observer must be the same gender as the employee; an opposite-gender observer is never permitted. The observer may be someone other than the collector and does not need to be a qualified collector (49 CFR 40.67(g)).
• If someone else observes, instruct that person to check the employee for prosthetic or other devices designed to carry clean urine or urine substitutes, and to watch the urine go from the employee's body into the collection container (49 CFR 40.67(h) to (j)).

Steps in Med-Stop

1. In FormFox, mark the primary collection as requiring an observed collection and suspend the collection process.
2. Return to the Med-Stop client. Click Observed Transfer at the bottom of the screen, then choose the transfer location and the reason.
3. Complete the collection process in Med-Stop.
4. Tell the donor that the observed collection must be completed at the other Med-Stop location. You can print the Observed Collection Transfer Information form for the donor.