Murray V. Surgical Specialties Case Analysis

This article is about the ruling of the Commonwealth Court that employers are not required to keep the drug and alcohol test results of an employee confidential. The Pennsylvania Drug and Alcohol Abuse Control Act, which bars disclosure of the substance and addiction treatment records of a patient to third parties, was unanimously ruled by a three-judge panel that it does not apply to the drug and alcohol test results of an employee. It all started with the recent case of In the Matter of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs (State Board of Nursing Investigation No. 14-51-05195) V. Abington Health, where Abington Hospital fired a registered nurse for failing a drug test and the hospital worried that if they abide by the subpoena and released the nurse’s test records that they would be going against the ruling of the 1999 Murray v. Surgical Specialties case. The overall ruling was that according to the Control Act, the results of drug and alcohol tests done for the purpose of the employee receiving treatment may not be released because it may cause the employee to feel discouraged and not get the treatment they need. However, the drug and alcohol test results of employees for the purpose of employment may lawfully be released, especially when the employees are nurses, for the Professional Nursing Law makes sure that all the nurses are not rendered incapable of …show more content…
Also it would potentially keep people alcoholism away from wanting to work for that