COOKEVILLE – Dr. Toney Hudson of Occupational Health Center recently qualified as a certified Medical Review Officer (MRO). Hudson is the medical director at Occupational Health Center.
Hudson was certified by the Medical Review Officer Certification Council (MROCC), an independent physician-based certifying body that conducts a rigorous and extensive application process and written credentialing examination to identify licensed physicians with the highest professional standards of medical expertise and practical skills necessary to evaluate drug and alcohol test results in public and private sectors of the workplace.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, most Fortune 500 corporations and many smaller companies require employee drug and alcohol testing today. More than 20 million forensic drug test specimens are processed by certified laboratories every year, and the results of these laboratory tests are reviewed and interpreted by highly credentialed physicians acting as MROCC-Certified Medical Review Officers (MROs). Federal law (49 CFR Part 40 of the Federal Register) mandates that a certified MRO must make the final determination of whether a positive laboratory test represents substance abuse.
MROCC Certification is intended to ensure the public of quality services and the maintenance of ethical conduct by qualified physicians involved in drug and alcohol testing review.
The certified MRO may also act as a valuable resource to protect the company, helping with policies and regulatory issues, as well as providing related services such as drug testing collections, breath alcohol testing services, coordination of laboratory services, laboratory performance testing and preparation of summary reports for employers. MROCC certification indicates that a physician is well-prepared to handle all essential aspects of workplace drug and alcohol testing programs.
The MROCC Board of Directors represent a multi-specialty partnership among a variety of medical specialty groups — the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the American Academy of Clinical Toxicologists, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the College of American Pathologists — as well as the American Medical Association.
