Use clinical decision-making, not automatic protocols, for perinatal urine drug testing

Abstract

Urine drug screening (UDS) 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. The key is to remove isolated cannabis use and limited prenatal care as an automatic order for urine drug screening, according to a recent study. The researchers found that updating the policy was associated with a significant reduction in racial disparities in both urine drug testing and reporting to CPS.