Use clinical decision-making for perinatal urine drug testing

Abstract

Urine drug screening policies that have been updated, combined with clinical decision support, may reduce racially biased reporting to child protective services (CPS) during prenatal and postnatal care and labor and delivery, according to a study published online March 17 in JAMA Network Open. The key is to remove isolated cannabis use and limited prenatal care as an automatic order for urine drug screening, the researchers found. The quality improvement study, “Racial Equity in Urine Drug Screening Policies in Labor and Delivery,” found that updating the policy was associated with a significant reduction in racial disparities in both urine drug testing and reporting to CPS.