Why Has My Doctor Ordered Testing?


Patient testing is recommended for medication monitoring, safety, verification, and compliance.

Why Has My Doctor Ordered Testing?

Physicians order urine and oral fluid testing for a variety of reasons. If you are employed, you may be required to random or regular drug screening as a workplace mandate. If you are being treated by a physician, you may have to have your medication monitored in order to target opportunities for improvements in medical therapy. If you are at risk for substance abuse or behaving abnormally under physician care, you may be ordered to take a drug screening that will attempt to detect illicit or non-prescribed medications.

1. Medication Monitoring

When physicians order medical therapy for a patient to treat anxiety, pain, depression, medical conditions, or other disorder, they often follow up with medication monitoring. This requires frequent drug screening to evaluate how the prescription medications are interacting and metabolizing in order to find opportunities for medication improvement.

Causes of inefficiency in prescription medication therapy:

  • Medicinal misuse
  • Substance abuse
  • Noncompliance to medical plan

2. Medication Safety & Drug Interaction

There are several types of medications that can negatively interact causing adverse side effects or reduction of therapeutic properties. Some medications can cancel out effects of other drugs while other medications can have additive affects. Physicians monitor these interactions to keep patients safe from harmful side effects that can occur from mixing medications.

Causes of drug interactions:

  • Drug alterations in the body
  • Drug distribution in the body
  • Drug absorption in the body
  • Elimination of drug in the body

Causes of medicine absorption issues:

  • Intestinal blood flow changes
  • Intestinal metabolism changes
  • Incremental changes in motility within the intestines
  • Changes in stomach acidity
  • Bacterial changes within the intestinal tract

3. Verification of Proper Metabolization & Effectiveness

The body primarily metabolizes medication through the liver while sometimes this process can begin in the wall of the gut, blood plasma, and lungs. Enzymes breakdown the medication by converting it into a water-soluble compound. This allows the medication to be excreted into the fluids of the body such as the bile or urine. Metabolism happens in two phases. The first is non-synthetic and involves oxidation, reduction, and hydrolysis. The second is synthetic through glucuronic acid, sulfate, and glycine. This process can be affected by genetics, drug concentration and metabolic rates.

Factors of drug metabolism

  • Diet
  • Disease/Illness
  • Number of hepatocytes
  • Level of enzyme activity
  • Genetic deficiency
  • Environmental factors

4. Compliance

Compliance drug screening allows physicians and other health care providers with vital substance use information to help monitor the use of prescribed and non-prescribed medications. These types of testing may be legally or privately mandated by institutions or business for employment, rehabilitation facilities, or health care.

Types of compliance testing

  • Pre-employment screening
  • School/Student testing
  • Rehabilitation screening
  • Medication Monitoring
  • Pain Management monitoring

  Contact Us

Harvest Labs, Inc.

730 North Ave. K, Suite 201
Crowley, LA 70526

Todd LeLeux, MD - Chief Medical Officer

Patient Billing Inquiries:
(888) 859-8763

Phone Hours:
Mon - Fri 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM CST

  Info@Harvest-Labs.com