We asked, You Answered

SureScreen has conducted a recent survey of customers to find out what you thought of the service and products. SureScreen proudly announces its exceptional achievements in customer satisfaction, setting a standard for excellence in the industry. SureScreen Diagnostics has always prioritised the satisfaction of its customers, and the latest statistics confirm that this dedication has not gone unnoticed.

As SureScreen Diagnostics celebrates these exceptional customer statistic results, the company looks forward to a future filled with even greater achievements. With a commitment to quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, SureScreen continues to set the bar high, inspiring confidence and trust among its valued customers worldwide.

These statistics reflect not only the company’s dedication to excellence but also its ability to consistently meet and exceed customer expectations. With such resounding approval from its customers, SureScreen Diagnostics continues to solidify its reputation as a trusted leader in the diagnostics industry, embodying reliability, quality, and outstanding service.

Company overall

In a competitive landscape where choices abound, SureScreen Diagnostics emerges as the preferred choice for an overwhelming majority of customers. With a remarkable “9 out of 10” preference rate over other suppliers, SureScreen’s commitment to quality, reliability, and innovation shines through. Customers consistently choose SureScreen for their diagnostics needs, recognising the company as a trusted partner they can rely on.

Products

SureScreen Diagnostics has always prioritised the satisfaction of its customers, and the latest statistics confirm that this dedication has not gone unnoticed. Among the standout figures is the resounding affirmation from customers that 100% of them are either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the quality of SureScreen’s products. This unanimous approval serves as a powerful testament to the company’s unwavering commitment to maintaining exceptionally high standards in every aspect of its product offerings.

Customer support

Efficiency is not just a goal; it’s a way of life at SureScreen Diagnostics. An impressive 95% of customers reported that connecting with a service agent was either “very easy” or “easy.” This statistic speaks volumes about SureScreen’s dedication to providing seamless and accessible customer support experiences. By prioritising easy communication channels and responsive service agents, SureScreen ensures that its customers can quickly obtain assistance whenever they need it, further solidifying their trust and confidence in the company.

SureScreen Diagnostics doesn’t just meet customer expectations; it exceeds them. By consistently delivering high-quality products and services, SureScreen drives innovation forward in the diagnostics industry. The company’s dedication to excellence is reflected not only in its customer satisfaction statistics but also in its relentless pursuit of advancements that push the boundaries of what’s possible.

In conclusion, SureScreen Diagnostics is dedicated to delivering excellence in the diagnostics industry, celebrating remarkable customer satisfaction statistics that underscore its unwavering dedication to quality, innovation, and customer-centricity.

Share

More stories from Surescreen

View all articles

We asked, You Answered

Read full article

Drug Retention Times

Read full article

Drug testing: Oral fluid or Urine?

Read full article

SureScreen Diagnostics expands its product offering on NHS Supply Chain

Read full article

Drug Retention Times

Different types of drugs have varying detection windows. Many factors can impact the period of detection time, such as usage frequency, individual metabolism, health status and more. The information provided is a guideline and does not indicate that a drug will be detected for this long in all cases.

Urine retention time

FULL DRUG NAME CODE RETENTION
Amphetamines AMP 2-4 days
Barbiturate BAR 1-2 days
Benzodiazepine BZO 3-30 days
Buprenorphine BUP 5-8 days if you are healthy or 7-12 days if you have liver disease
Cannabis THC Up to 3 days for single use
Up to 7 days for moderate use
Up to 15 days for heavy use
Up to 30 – 36 days for chronic use
Clonazepam CLO 21-30 days
Cocaine COC 2-4 days
Cotinine COT 3-5 days
Ethyl Glucuronide ETG 1-3 days
Fentanyl FYL 2-3 days
Gabapentin GAB 2-3 days
Hydromorphone HMO 2-4 days
Ketamine KET 3-5 days
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide LSD 2-5 days
6-Monoacetylmorphine 6-MAM 1-3 days
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine MDMA 1-2 days
Methamphetamine MET/MAMP 2–4 days
Morphine MOP 1-2 days
Methylphenidate MPD 1-3 days
Methaqualone MQL 12-14 days
Methadone MTD 3-13 days
Methcathinone MCAT 7-30 days
Mephedrone MEP 1-2 days
Opiates OPI 2-5 days
Oxycodone OXY 2-4 days
Phencyclidine PCP 1.5-10 days
Pregabalin PRE/PGB 5-6 days
Propoxyphene PPX 1-2 days
Synthetic Cannabis K2 1-3 days
Tramadol TRA/TML 6 hours – 2 days
Tricyclic Antidepressants TCA 2 – 10 days
2-Ethylidene-1, 5-Dimethyl-3, 3-Diphenylpyrrolidine EDDP 2 – 5 days

Oral fluid retention time

FULL DRUG NAME CODE RETENTION
Amphetamines AMP 72 hours
Barbiturates BAR 52 hours
Benzodiazepines BZO 72 hours
Buprenorphine BUP 72 hours
Cocaine COC 24 hours
Cotinine COT 48 hours
Fentanyl FYL 48 hours
Heroine HRN 72 hours
Ketamine KET 48 hours
Cannabis THC 24 hours
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine MDMA 21 hours
Methamphetamine MET/MAMP 72 hours
Morphine MOP 72 hours
Methadone MTD 48 hours
Opiates OPI 21 hours
Oxycodone OXY 48 hours
Phencyclidine PCP 72 hours
Propoxyphene PPX 48 hours
Synthetic Cannabis K2 48 hours
Tramadol TRA/TML 12 hours

Share

More stories from Surescreen

View all articles

We asked, You Answered

Read full article

Drug Retention Times

Read full article

Drug testing: Oral fluid or Urine?

Read full article

SureScreen Diagnostics expands its product offering on NHS Supply Chain

Read full article

Drug testing: Oral fluid or Urine?

Phil Winstone is the SureScreen Academy Training Officer, where he provides educational seminars to companies on many aspects of drugs of abuse and alcohol. As an experienced trainer, he keeps up to date with the latest practices and research on drug and alcohol misuse. Here, he explains the differences and considerations for choosing oral fluid drug testing over urine drug testing.

The choice depends on various factors including the purpose of the test, the substances being tested for, the convenience of sample collection and the detection window required. Firstly, a drug test works by detecting the presence of specific drugs or metabolites in a biological sample, such as urine or oral fluid (saliva). A metabolite is a small chemical structure which is unique to the chemical it is derived from. Metabolites are formed in the body as the parent substance is broken down in a process called metabolism. This process largely takes part in the liver, which houses the enzymes necessary to perform this task. In immunoassay drug testing, the sample is evaluated for the presence of drug metabolites. This means that both oral and urine testing can provide accurate and reliable results. As a drug passes through the body, it can be found in different matrices at different times.

Oral fluid drug testing typically has a shorter detection window compared to urine drug testing. The detection window is the time that a drug can be detected in a biological sample above the cut-off level for the test being performed. Oral fluid can be representative of the presence of a specified metabolite within the blood plasma. Therefore, it may indicate that a substance has recently been active in the body. Oral fluid substances are generally only detectable for a few hours after ingestion, while urine drug testing can detect substances for a longer period, sometimes up to several days or weeks depending on the substance. Urine drug testing may be used to detect recent use, as well as habitual use of drugs.

Understanding the detection window is crucial for determining the type of testing necessary within a business. It’s important to review your policy to grasp the outlined testing procedures. There are various reasons for testing, including:

With-Cause Testing: This type of employment drug screening occurs when an employer suspects an employee is under the influence of substances.

Post-Incident Testing: Conducted after a workplace event to determine if substance use contributed to the incident.

Random Testing: Helpful for gauging levels of drug usage within the workplace and acting as a deterrent to substance abuse.

Pre-Employment Testing: Conducted as part of the recruitment process, signalling the company’s stance on substance misuse from the outset.

The choice between testing for habitual use or recent use of a substance determines the type of biological sample to collect. Oral fluid drug testing, with its quicker detection window, is more adept at detecting recent drug use compared to urine drug testing. If the goal is to detect drug use within the past few hours, oral fluid testing may be more appropriate, such as the SureSwab Rapid.

Oral fluid drug testing is generally considered an easier and less invasive way to collect a sample compared to urine drug testing. Collecting oral fluid samples does not require special facilities, and samples can be collected under direct supervision, reducing the chances of sample adulteration or substitution. While urine sample collection is simple, it is also unobserved, meaning that extra measures need to be put in place to avoid dilution and/or adulteration of samples. Due to the convenient nature of oral fluid sample collection, it is often suitable for on-site testing, allowing for quick, non-invasive screening in various settings such as workplaces, roadside checks or schools.

Finally, make sure you consider any regulatory requirements or guidelines that may dictate the type of drug testing method you should use in your particular context. Different industries or organisations may have specific guidelines regarding drug testing procedures.

In summary, oral fluid drug testing may be preferred over urine drug testing in situations where you need to detect recent drug use, require a convenient and non-invasive sample collection method, or need on-site testing capabilities. However, the choice ultimately depends on your specific requirements and the factors mentioned above.

Share

More stories from Surescreen

View all articles

We asked, You Answered

Read full article

Drug Retention Times

Read full article

Drug testing: Oral fluid or Urine?

Read full article

SureScreen Diagnostics expands its product offering on NHS Supply Chain

Read full article

SureScreen Diagnostics expands its product offering on NHS Supply Chain

For over a decade and a half, SureScreen Diagnostics has been providing the NHS Supply Chain, enhancing accessibility to our innovative diagnostic solutions within the United Kingdom’s healthcare system.

Over the years, our product portfolio has evolved in response to emerging healthcare needs, technological advancements, and evolving clinical practices. Each of our products has been meticulously curated, tested, and refined to meet the highest standards of quality, safety, and efficacy.

SureScreen Diagnostics’ inclusion of the pioneering dual SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza A/B Antigen Rapid Test Cassette and Strep A Antigen Rapid Test Cassette on the NHS Supply Chain underscores the company’s commitment to advancing healthcare outcomes through cutting-edge diagnostic technologies. With a diverse portfolio ranging from COVID-19 antigen tests to drug and alcohol screening kits, SureScreen has established itself as a trusted partner in diagnostic testing across various medical domains.

Download Full NHS Supply Chain List

The integration of SureScreen’s products into the NHS Supply Chain aligns with the healthcare system’s objective of delivering high-quality care efficiently and cost-effectively. By leveraging the Supply Chain’s expansive network and infrastructure, SureScreen can streamline distribution channels, ensuring timely access to its diagnostic solutions for healthcare providers nationwide.

One of the primary advantages of SureScreen’s diagnostic tests is their rapid turnaround time, which is critical for effective patient management and disease containment strategies, especially during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s antigen tests, known for their accuracy and reliability, have played a crucial role in identifying and isolating infected individuals promptly, thus mitigating the spread of the virus.

Furthermore, SureScreen’s commitment to innovation and quality assurance is evident in its rigorous manufacturing processes and adherence to regulatory standards. The company’s products undergo comprehensive validation and testing procedures to ensure optimal performance and consistency, instilling confidence among healthcare professionals and patients alike.

The availability of SureScreen’s products on the NHS Supply Chain not only enhances accessibility but also fosters collaboration between the private sector and the national healthcare system. By leveraging the expertise and resources of both sectors, stakeholders can collectively address healthcare challenges and improve patient outcomes through innovative solutions and best practices.

SureScreen’s expansion of its product range on the NHS Supply Chain reflects its unwavering dedication to advancing diagnostic capabilities and supporting healthcare providers in delivering superior patient care. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, partnerships between industry leaders and healthcare institutions will play a pivotal role in driving innovation and transforming healthcare delivery models.

Share

More stories from Surescreen

View all articles

We asked, You Answered

Read full article

Drug Retention Times

Read full article

Drug testing: Oral fluid or Urine?

Read full article

SureScreen Diagnostics expands its product offering on NHS Supply Chain

Read full article

SureSwab Rapid BSC

This cutting-edge design refines the drug screening processes, offering a less invasive and more efficient solution for workplace, rehabilitation, and clinical testing. SureSwab Rapid is designed to enhance the donor experience by minimising invasiveness and optimising collection time. This user-friendly product ensures a streamlined testing process, making it an ideal solution for various testing environments.

With a focus on efficiency, SureSwab Rapid enables rapid sample collection, reducing the overall testing time. This not only enhances operational efficiency but may also support cost savings for organisations implementing a drug screening program.

Learn how to implement a drug screening policy

In the Lab: Research & Development with George Newham

George Newham is a Research and Development Scientist at Surescreen, where he is instrumental in the development and production of rapid lateral flow devices (LFDs).

Specialising in nanoparticle physics, George manufactures the tiny pieces of metal – 1000 times smaller than a human cell – that are integral to LFDs detecting diseases and displaying a visual result. Here, he describes the science behind LFDs – and their potential impact on the future of medical diagnostics.

Lateral flow tests have been a significant medical diagnostic tool for some time now; the most common form of pregnancy test has been a lateral flow device since 1988. Even so, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 that LFDs became a near-universal part of daily life and the concept of self-testing burst into the public consciousness on a major scale. One of the very few positives to come out of the pandemic is that we have been altered en masse to how effective a tool LFDs can be for disease testing – providing rapid, reliable results without needing to be performed by trained medical professionals.

At Surescreen, the main thing we are trying to do is develop new tests for diseases beyond COVID-19, improve the sensitivity of tests so we are able to detect diseases better or earlier, and essentially increase the range of things we are able to accomplish using LFDs. My role as a Research and Development Scientist is to produce the tests themselves – all the way from doing the background chemistry and physics, through to spraying chemicals onto the strips of paper that are then packaged up within the plastic testing cassettes.

The first stage of research and development is disease targeting, which means choosing a disease with a suitable medical and business case for detection. At this point, we would be consulting and collaborating with colleagues from other medical fields – the NHS, academics, consultants and so on – to identify diseases that would benefit most from a rapid test. Those would potentially be diseases for which you need to get results quickly so that you can come up with a good treatment plan straight away, but where current testing takes a long time. Alternatively, we might be looking at diseases for which you might face regular screening once you hit a certain age category that puts you at greater risk. Any disease that creates a high input of tests and large workload for testing labs is a potential area of interest that could benefit from people taking rapid tests at home.

Once we’ve identified a target disease, the next stage is to obtain the antibodies that we use to develop the LFDs. In the most basic sense, an antibody is effectively a small grabber that your body produces as part of an immune response, and it will specifically bind onto another molecule – in this case a virus, bacteria, protein or similar. We spray these antibodies onto the ‘test’ line of the LFD, so that as the sample liquid flows past they will ‘grab’ onto the virus (if present). At the same time, there are also some very small bits of gold – the nanoparticles that I make – which have a corresponding antibody on them that ‘grabs’ onto the virus. The gold is coloured bright red, so if the virus is present, the gold antibody then sticks to the ‘test’ line along with the virus – giving the bright red line that indicates you have tested positive. If the virus isn’t present, the gold flows past so that there is no colour sticking to the test line – a negative result.

One of the biggest challenges during the R&D stage is achieving the correct level of specificity. Success depends on your antibody being able to pick out one – and only one – marker. Taking the COVID test as an example, you need to be extremely sure it’s only detecting COVID, and not also colds and flu. This means that whenever we pick a new target, we need reliable antibodies in order to make sure that the test we make is incredibly specific to the one marker that we’re looking for. Once we have achieved the desired level of specificity, it is then absolutely vital to test and validate our product before sending anything out, to ensure that we are achieving our goal of providing an accurate diagnosis.

Part of this process involves providing extremely clear guidelines about how the tests should be used, and situations in which the tests are and are not accurate. To establish this – again using COVID tests as an example – we would purchase a ‘control solution’ that contains a known concentration on the COVID-19 virus within some fake saliva – a simulated ‘positive’ case, effectively. We would then line up a large number of tests in the lab, and then drip different concentrations of the solution on to establish when we get a result and when we don’t – thereby providing us with a preliminary idea of the limit of detection, and whether this matches up with what’s required in medical practice.

Once we’re satisfied with those results, we would progress to clinical trials in partnership with NHS trusts, providing them with a number of our tests which they can then use to run the same samples that they are testing with the top-of-the-range machines in their high-tech laboratories. So essentially, the results from our LFDs would be compared with the results from the most advanced lab machines available, and we would then be able to look at the outcomes and establish the accuracy of our product compared to their normal testing methods. Aiming for an accuracy of at least 99%, we would get feedback on our false negative and positive rates, and having built up a big enough body of evidence, then go back and make tweaks and improvements to our LFDs before finally submitting them for approval.

There will always be limitations to LFDs, but in theory – assuming we can get hold of an antibody that will pick out the specific virus, infection or marker of cancer, for example – we could develop a test for virtually any disease or condition. Broadly speaking – and as briefly touched on above – there are two categories for which it would be particularly useful to develop LFDs. The first includes those situations where you go to the doctors with something potentially very urgent and damaging, and because it would take too long to receive the test results the doctor has to treat you for a worst-case scenario, starting you on an intensive and expensive treatment programme. In this case, a rapid lateral flow test would enable you to triage much more quickly and help better inform the treatment direction.

The second category involves those lower-risk but abundant problems which take up a huge amount of laboratory testing resources – resources which, if freed up, would enable them to address higher-risk and perhaps more niche diseases more quickly. Let’s say there is a run-of-the-mill problem that could realistically be dealt with without a GP, and you could instead speak to a pharmacist who would give you a test to carry out in your own home. You could then report the result back to your GP or pharmacist, and they would prescribe you the appropriate drug. GPs deal with hundreds of these sorts of run-of-the-mill problems all the time; freeing them, other medical professionals and lab spaces up from dealing with such minor issues would enable them to devote more time to dealing with less common or more challenging cases.

The future of diagnostics is about putting power into patients’ hands and enabling them to test themselves. There should be no need to go and see a GP in person if it isn’t necessary and you are able to obtain a very high level of accurate diagnosis without doing so. This level of convenience and efficiency would extend to regular screening tests for conditions that you are at higher risk of developing in old age for example; instead of having to travel to a clinic and get your sample sent to a lab, those tests could be carried out much more quickly and easily in your own home.

This sort of rapid testing would also widen the scope for providing health care to those areas of the world that lack sufficient access to high-quality laboratories and highly trained scientists. At the moment, patients in certain areas of the developing world don’t have many options when it comes to obtaining a diagnosis for diseases, but if we can make access to diagnosis cheaper and not dependent on technology – to the point where you can have a single enclosed package that contains a LFD – then disease diagnosis need not be tied to wealth or resources in the future. That would bring us one step closer to the dream of most – if not all – diseases being diagnosable for everyone, wherever they might be in the world.

This isn’t going to happen tomorrow; this is the big picture of what we would really like to achieve. There will always be diseases which you can’t diagnose with LFDs for whatever reason, and there will also always be reasons that patients will need to see doctors in person. But the pressures we see today – not just on the NHS, but on the whole of society – seem likely to increase. The more we give people the option of testing at home – or at patients’ bedsides in care homes, or wherever might be most suitable – the more we can hopefully free up time for medical staff to see patients who are most in need of face-to-face contacts, free up laboratory time for testing serious and niche diseases, and ensure health systems are optimally prepared to continue providing high-quality care in the face of increasing demand.

Share

More stories from Surescreen

View all articles

We asked, You Answered

Read full article

Drug Retention Times

Read full article

Drug testing: Oral fluid or Urine?

Read full article

SureScreen Diagnostics expands its product offering on NHS Supply Chain

Read full article
Join our community

Stay up to date with all of SureScreen's latest news, products and services.

Customer Satisfaction Survey