RAPID-TURNAROUND DRUG TEST ESCREEN SPEEDS HIRING PROCESS

Monday, January 07, 2002 - It looks like the lowliest of workplace fixtures
- - an office coffeemaker - but a new rapid-turnaround drug screen is quietly
revolutionizing the way employers make hires.

Dozens of Front Range businesses already are using eScreen's Drugs of Abuse
Screening System, which last spring became the first instant, automated
method of workplace drug testing approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

"EScreen's the newest thing on the market and it's a hit," says Kiana
VanDiver, a technician and supervisor who works at one of Concentra's five
Denver-area clinics. "It started out with a few national accounts, and it
has spread rapidly."

Her clinic hasn't used it a full year yet, she said.

Marketed by an Overland Park, Kan., firm, eScreen allows employers to
obtain negative - or drug-free - test results within minutes, rather than
the industry standard of 48 to 72 hours.

"That's huge if you need to make an expedited hiring decision, or are
looking at a post-accident (workplace) situation," says Sarah Mayer,
marketing coordinator for Stat America, an Evergreen firm that sets up
nationwide corporate drug-testing programs.

Although 95 percent of the more than 50 million drug screens performed
nationwide each year prove negative, conventional testing has kept
companies - and potential employees - waiting.

Urine specimens typically are collected at one site, then shipped to a
far-flung laboratory for testing, accompanied by a long paper chain of
custody. Samples usually are tested for five illegal substances: marijuana,
cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine - or PCP - and amphetamines.

Like instant testing kits already on the market, eScreen provides immediate
results. But at a cost only slightly higher than conventional drug screens
($20 to $40), it offers additional benefits some businesses find
invaluable: an encrypted Web component that allows clients to check results
quickly online, and a computerized reader that eliminates human involvement
- - and potential error - in interpreting results.

The system employs a specially designed plastic specimen cup with a lid
that contains urinalysis strips. A plunger transfers the required amount of
urine onto the strips; the reader then uses optical technology to determine
whether results are negative, a process that takes 2 to 8 minutes.
Questionable samples are forwarded for conventional laboratory testing.

EScreen has been a big hit with employers, including retail giant Wal-Mart.
The system also has been installed at more than 200 Concentra Health
Services clinics nationwide, including 14 along the Front Range. About 100
Colorado businesses use the clinics for their workplace drug testing.

"Our system addresses all the barriers once surrounding instant drug
testing," eScreen founder Murray Lappe said. "It's an important new
technology that will have a significant impact on employment screening."