Committee rejects bill requiring random drug testing for hospital ‘‘safety-sensitive’’ employees after split testimony

Summary

Senate File 129, which would have required hospitals to maintain random drug-and-alcohol testing programs for employees in safety-sensitive roles and to use the Wyoming Professional Assistance Program for positive tests, failed to pass out of committee after testimony revealed definitional, cost and scope concerns.

Sponsor Senator Larson brought Senate File 129 to the Labor, Health & Social Services Committee on Jan. 24 after citing a local news story that a hospital district had suspended its random testing policy. The bill would require hospitals to operate a random drug-and-alcohol-testing program for employees who hold or seek “safety sensitive” positions, require removal from safety-sensitive duties after a positive test, require evaluation and treatment through the Wyoming Professional Assistance Program, and direct the Department of Health to promulgate implementing rules.

“ I think our hospitals maybe need a little direction,” Senator Larson told the committee, citing an article about West Park Hospital District’s decision to suspend a random testing policy and the district’s estimate that it had terminated roughly 15 employees over five years for positive THC tests.

The Department of Health’s deputy director Franz Fuchs told the…

Committee rejects bill requiring random drug testing for hospital ‘‘safety-sensitive’’ employees after split testimony

Summary

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