Clients’ overall chemical usage since entering treatment is periodically assessed by reviewing all urinalysis outcomes for active patients through the GEMS system at Lincoln Hospital. Patients are also made aware that if their urinalysis profiles during treatment show a drug-free status, this information may be extremely helpful regarding their agency cases.

For example with a person on probation, a drug-free urine profile may indicate to the court that the patient has been able to stop substance usage and thus is complying with probation guidelines. This may have a positive effect on the outcome of a probation sentence (e.g., early discharge from probation).

Counselors are to utilize urinalysis results as an objective measure of treatment success. The counselor should generally take the role of the supportive “good cop,” and let the urine machine function as the judgmental “bad cop”. In this way the counseling process can be totally separated from the process of judgment.

Counselors should utilize the computer printout showing urinalysis results in their sessions, to help minimize patients’ denial of drug usage during treatment. Counselors should also use patients’ results to help focus individuals on progress they were able to achieve, and to generally reinforce drug abstinence.