Prescritipion Drugs

Beate

What can I do to find out more about an employee's medical condition and her prescription drug intake? We currently have an employee who seems to be "out of it, spacey" frequently, she is jittery, shaky and lacks concentration. Within the last 2 months she has had 2 WC issues, with the first one her drug test was negative, (I don't know the results of the last one yet). She had been hospitalized in the beginning of the year for depression and overdose. While we don't think that she is taking illegal drugs, we do have concerns that the prescription drugs she is taken may be too many or interacting with one another. When we spoke to her after the last WC incident, she just state that she was under a lot of stress. I have given her the information on EAP as well as our insurance providers info on mental health issues. Even our customers have made note and commented on her lack of attention to detail and service ability.

What are our options? Could she be covered under ADA for Depression? We are concerned for her wellbeing, as well as needing an employee whom we can count on to do their job. What can I do or ask without violating her privacy rights?

Any help would be appreciated.

Down_the_Middle

This is much more complicated than can be addressed here, but I'd be inclined to do couple of things: 1) I'd have conversation with her expressing concern over her well-being and suggest that she see her physician for a fitness-for-duty exam. You want to be certain she's medically able to work and you're concerned about her. Juries are not likely to find you at fault for trying to be concerned/compassionate and showing that you care. You should not try and diagnose her physical symptoms, but can reasonably be concerned becuz her perf is suffering. 2) impose an employer referral to your EAP requesting assistance. They s/b able to help identify whether there are medication issues or what might explain the behavior and performance issues. (I'm stressing performance becuz I'll bet there are perf issues if you look closely enough.)

sonny

Concur with the above but want to emphasize that I think it is important that you focus on PERFORMANCE aspect of the situation.