2005 Press Releases
Rome family practitioner becomes certified as a Medical Review Officer ROME -- Richard P. Kaskiw, M.D., a Rome family practitioner, recently became certified as a Medical Review Officer by the American Association of Medical Review Officers, Inc. (AAMRO), permitting him to provide oversight for drug testing for federally regulated drug testing programs. Dr. Kaskiw, who is a member of Rome Memorial Hospital’s medical staff and is a member of the hospital’s board of trustees, conducts drug and alcohol oversight for Rome Memorial Hospital’s corporate health program. “My role is to make the final determination as to the accuracy and validity of drug testing,” said Dr. Kaskiw. “As a Medical Review Officer, I play a fundamental role in fulfilling the constitutional requirements of the Fourth Amendment for government mandated drug testing. My role is to balance the protected rights of the test individual and the compelling concerns for health and safety in the workplace and for drug deterrence,” he added. According to Assistant Vice President of Planning and Outpatient Services Mark Snyderman, Medical Review Officers play a critical role in drug testing programs in assessing whether an alternate medical explanation can account for a positive drug test result. “The MRO provides for the privacy and confidentiality of the employee’s personal medical history during the course of reviewing drug test results. More and more programs are relying on the MRO to review quality control and quality assurance aspects of the testing and requesting MRO involvement in assessment and monitoring of treatment progress.” The AAMRO, created in 1991, is a non-profit medical society dedicated to establishing national standards and certification of medical practitioners and other professionals in the field of drug and alcohol testing. This certification process involves the establishment of standard practices and procedures, and training programs and administration of certification exams. Certification is intended to ensure the public’s receipt of quality services, and the maintenance of ethical conduct by competent professionals involved in drug and alcohol testing. Recently, Dr. Kaskiw, who earned certification in addiction medicine from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), received the Amethyst Award from the Mohawk Valley Council on Alcoholism/Addictions., Inc., for his contribution to the field of chemical dependency treatment and prevention through his work with the hospital’s Community Recovery Center (CRC). The CRC is an outpatient clinic which provides alcohol and substance abuse treatment. Dr. Kaskiw has provided educational programs for hospital and CRC staff on a variety of topics related to substance abuse. He was also instrumental in the development and implementation of alcohol withdrawal protocols to minimize the occurrence of life threatening complications associated with severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms. He is one of the few physicians in the Central New York area that is certified to prescribe Suboxone on an outpatient basis for opiate addiction. Certified by the American Board of Family Practice, Dr. Kaskiw has been a member of Rome Memorial Hospital’s medical staff since 1991. He earned his medical degree from the University Autonoma de Guadalajara School of Medicine, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in 1987, and completed his residency in family practice at St. Elizabeth Hospital in 1991. He performed his post-graduate studies at Ohio State University and earned his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. The type of standards and certification AAMRO has developed has been encouraged, and is supported, by federal agencies that are significantly involved in the procedural, policy and administrative aspects of drug and alcohol testing, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. | 