It sounds a bit cryptic, but it’s actually very simple.
When a drug test is positive, meaning a drug of abuse was detected, the result goes to our Medical Review Officer. The MRO is a doctor with special training. Part of the MRO’s job is to validate any positive drug tests.
Generally this means contacting the donor to ask for explanation. If the donor can provide a valid prescription (which the MRO verifies) or other reason a drug test result may be positive, then the MRO may report a negative result.
If the MRO is not able to contact the donor within a specific amount of time, then the result is reported as a Non-Contact Positive.
Some possible reasons the MRO may not be able to contact the donor include poor legibility on the Custody and Control Form. That is, if a paper CCF was used for collection and the MRO cannot accurately read the donor’s phone number, then the donor cannot be contacted. Or the donor does not answer the phone and the voice mail cannot record a message. Or the donor does not check voice mail.
Or, as you can imagine, the donor knows she failed the test and avoids the call.
In any case, a result must be reported, and if no donor contact is made, then it’s reported as a Non-Contact Positive.
For more info on the critical role of the MRO, read this post.
