Services / Alcohol & Drug Management and MRO

Workplace Drug Testing & MRO: Reviewed by Occupational Physicians

Phoenix’s AMROA-accredited Medical Review Officers (MROs) are Occupational and Environmental Physicians and occupationally trained doctors. They design Drug and Alcohol Management Programs, review confirmed positive results, and give employers a clinical determination regarding the impact on safe work.

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How It Works

Who We Help

Specialist-led drug and alcohol management for every stakeholder

A confirmed positive puts a worker, an employer, and an insurer all in the same difficult moment. Our MRO service is designed to resolve each result on its medical merits, not on assumption.

Employers

A fit-for-purpose Drug and Alcohol Management Program, AMROA-accredited MRO review of confirmed positive results, and reporting that delivers a clinical judgement regarding impact on safe work.

Workers

Independent medical review when a test result is confirmed positive. You are afforded confidentiality, prescription medication context, and a fair process before any workplace decision is made.

Also supporting

HR & WHS teams: DAMP design, policy review, training and audit support.

What it is

What workplace drug testing and MRO services actually do

From an Occ Med perspective, the most common mistake we see is a workplace acting on a lab result before the medical interpretation. “The test came back positive” is a chemistry finding. Whether the worker is fit for safety-critical duties is a clinical decision, and the two are not the same thing.

Workplace drug and alcohol testing is one part of a broader Drug and Alcohol Management Program (DAMP). The DAMP sets out the rules: what’s tested, when, who pays, what happens after a result, and how worker rights and safety obligations are balanced. Testing without following a clearly defined DAMP can be a risk for employers if decisions are later challenged.

A Medical Review Officer (MRO) is the specialist link between the laboratory and the workplace. The MRO reviews any confirmed positive result, looks for legitimate medical explanations (declared prescription medication, recent procedures, dietary substances that cross-react with assays), and gives the employer information to inform the next step. At Phoenix Occupational Medicine, our MROs are accredited by the Australasian Medical Review Officers Association (AMROA). That accreditation is what separates “the lab said positive” into a clinical decision an employer can act on.

Capabilities

What our MRO and drug and alcohol service covers

From program design through to individual result review, everything an employer needs to make drug and alcohol testing defensible and useful.

DAMP design and review

Drug and Alcohol Management Program scoped to your industry, risk profile, and the relevant Australian Standard (AS/NZS 4308:2023 for urine, AS 4760:2019 for oral fluid).

AMROA-accredited MRO review

Independent review of any confirmed positive laboratory result, including verification against declared prescription medication.

Pre-employment drug and alcohol screening

Coordinated with sample-collection partners; MRO oversight on result interpretation. Integrates with pre-employment medicals where required.

Random, post-incident, and for-cause testing

MRO review for every confirmed positive result, regardless of how the test was triggered.

Medication declaration management

A process for workers to declare prescription or over-the-counter medication that could affect a test or fitness for work.

Medical cannabis and prescription opioid review

Specialist review of workers using legitimately prescribed medical cannabis, opioids, or benzodiazepines, with clinical judgements regarding impact on safe work.

Policy, training and audit support

Ongoing review of how the program is operating, including audit of testing volumes, refusal rates and medication declarations.

Why Phoenix

Why specialist-reviewed drug and alcohol testing matters

A lab result is a chemistry finding, not a workplace decision. Our MROs convert one into the other.

01 / AMROA-ACCREDITED

MROs accredited by the Australasian Medical Review Officers Association

Phoenix’s MROs are Occupational and Environmental Physicians (OEPs) and occupationally trained doctors who hold AMROA accreditation: the standard for workplace drug and alcohol testing review in Australia.

02 / OEP-LED

Occupational & environmental physicians, not generic clinicians

Our MRO service is designed and clinically governed by OEPs. The doctor reviewing a result understands both the chemistry and the work: what the role actually demands, what restrictions make sense, and what doesn’t.

03 / EVIDENCE-LED

Decisions tied to declared medication and clinical context

Every confirmed positive result is reviewed against the worker’s declared prescription medication and clinical history, not interpreted in isolation. Outcomes are documented to a standard that withstands HR, legal and regulatory review.

04 / CONTEMPORARY

Medical cannabis, opioids and emerging substances

Prescription medical cannabis, prescription opioids and a growing list of legal-but-impairing substances now sit at the centre of workplace drug testing. Our MROs make a clinical judgment regarding impact on safe work, not a binary detected-or-not call.

05 / SECURE

ISO 27001-certified information systems

Phoenix Occupational Medicine holds ISO 27001 information system certification. Test results, medication declarations and case notes are managed in a certified information security environment.

06 / NATIONAL REACH

MRO review delivered by phone or telehealth, anywhere in Australia

Sample collection happens locally. MRO review happens with a Phoenix doctor by telehealth, on a national basis. Distance from a clinic is not a barrier to specialist oversight.

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The Process

How a Phoenix-managed drug and alcohol program works

Four steps, from program design to a defensible decision on every confirmed positive result.

Design

We work with you to design or review a DAMP that fits your industry, risk profile, and the relevant Australian Standard. Includes policy, medication-declaration process, testing matrix and the chain of decision-making.

Collect

Sample collection is performed locally by an accredited collection agency using AS/NZS 4308:2023 (urine) or AS 4760:2019 (oral fluid). Phoenix coordinates this where required, and integrates it with any pre-employment medical.

Review

If the result is not-negative, the employer follows their DAMP and escalates to the Phoenix MRO. The MRO speaks with the worker by telehealth, reviews any declared medication, and verifies the source of the substance detected.

Report

The employer receives a structured MRO report: the finding, the relevant medication context, and a defensible determination. The worker’s medical details remain confidential.

Scope

What’s tested, and what an MRO actually decides

Workplace drug and alcohol testing covers a defined panel of substances. The MRO’s job is the medical interpretation, not the chemistry.

Standard testing panels

Breath alcohol
Urine drug screen to AS/NZS 4308:2023 (amphetamine-type stimulants, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, opioids)
Oral fluid drug screen to AS 4760:2019
Laboratory-confirmed testing using GC-MS / LC-MS
Synthetic cannabinoid and novel psychoactive substance panels on request

What the MRO does (and doesn’t) decide

Does: verify the medical explanation for any confirmed positive result
Does: make a clinical judgement regarding the impact on safe work
Doesn’t: hire, discipline, or terminate a worker
Doesn’t: override the lab’s chemistry finding

Integration

Where drug and alcohol management sits inside your wider occupational program

The DAMP and MRO service are most useful when they connect to the rest of your worker health program.

One occupational physician across testing, medicals, and injury

The MRO who reviews a confirmed positive result can be the same OEP who saw the worker for a pre-employment medical, a health surveillance review, or an injury consultation. That continuity means medication context, fitness-for-duty history and any past restrictions inform the decision, instead of being lost between providers.

See Phoenix’s full occupational health services

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SPECIALIST TEAM ACROSS ALL OCC HEALTH

FAQs

Common questions about workplace drug testing and MRO services

What does a not-negative test result actually mean?

A not-negative result means a substance has been detected at or above the cut-off level set by the relevant Australian Standard. It is not a confirmed positive. The sample is sent to a NATA-accredited laboratory for confirmatory testing using GC-MS or LC-MS. The MRO then reviews the confirmed result against the worker’s declared medication and clinical history before any workplace decision is made.

What’s the difference between a Medical Review Officer and a regular doctor?

A Medical Review Officer (MRO) is a medical practitioner with specific accreditation in workplace drug and alcohol testing. At Phoenix, our MROs are Occupational and Environmental Physicians or occupationally trained doctors who hold AMROA accreditation, the Australian standard for this work.

A regular GP can interpret a clinical test for a patient. An MRO is trained to interpret a workplace test for an employer: balancing medical confidentiality, fitness-for-work, the relevant scheme rules, and the safety obligations the employer carries.

Can a worker be sacked over a positive result?

The MRO doesn’t make termination decisions; the employer does. The MRO’s role is to determine, on medical grounds, whether the substance detected is consistent with declared prescription medication or other legitimate explanation, and a clinical judgement regarding impact on safe work.

Whether a positive result becomes a disciplinary matter depends on the employer’s DAMP, the worker’s contract, and Fair Work obligations. Phoenix recommends every DAMP includes a clear, written process for what happens after an MRO determination.

What about prescribed medical cannabis?

Prescription medical cannabis is legal in Australia, but it can produce a confirmed positive urine or oral fluid result for THC. The MRO reviews the worker’s prescription, the dosage, the time since last use, and the tasks performed in the role.

The outcome is a clinical judgment about the impact on safe work, not a binary detected-or-not call. For safety-critical roles (heavy machinery, driving, working at height), the MRO may recommend restrictions even with a valid prescription. For lower-risk roles, the worker may be cleared to continue as normal.

How fast is the MRO review?

For most confirmed positive results, the MRO speaks with the worker by phone or telehealth within one business day of the laboratory escalation. The structured report to the employer follows within two business days in most cases.

Where there’s an immediate safe-work decision to be made (for example, a result reported on the morning of a shift), the MRO can issue an interim safe-work recommendation pending the full review.

Does Phoenix carry out the sample collection too?

Sample collection is performed by accredited collection agencies operating to AS/NZS 4308:2023 or AS 4760:2019. Phoenix coordinates this where required, and integrates it with our pre-employment medicals, but the MRO service is independent of the collection step: the MRO reviews the laboratory-confirmed result, not the swab or cup.

Key takeaways

Phoenix’s Medical Review Officers are AMROA-accredited Occupational and Environmental Physicians and occupationally trained doctors, not general clinicians.
Workplace drug testing is one component of a Drug and Alcohol Management Program (DAMP). A well designed and followed DAMP should guide defensible decisions.
An MRO converts a laboratory chemistry result into a defensible determination.
Medical cannabis, prescription opioids and other legitimately prescribed medication are reviewed on clinical merits, not on a detected-or-not basis.
MRO review is delivered by phone or telehealth, anywhere in Australia, with sample collection coordinated locally.
Phoenix Occupational Medicine holds ISO 27001 information system certification for the handling of test results and medical information.

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