Medical Laboratory Staffing

Journal article based on Lisa Epsioteo’s article “Hospital Labs: Behind the Scenes,” posted on 30 January 2015 from U.S News, which demonstrate the importance of lab tech duties like analyzing specimen for the patient safety. It gives basic ideology of lab tech work, also informs, and provides learning experience about covert scientist and phlebotomist working at their respective work

This has happened in part because many kinds of jobs now require higher skill levels, but other factors were also important.

Congress held hearings at which people who had been harmed by laboratory errors testified. These hearings revealed serious deficits in the quality of work from physician office laboratories and in Pap smear testing results (R. D. Feld, M. Schwabbauer, and J. D. Olson, 2001, The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act [CLIA] and the physician's office laboratory; Virtual Hospital, University of Iowa College of Medi-cine [www.vh.org/adult/provider/pathology/CLIA/CLIAHP.html]). In 1988, Congress once again responded to public concerns about the quality of laboratory testing by passing CLIA '88. CLIA '88 expanded the laboratory standards set by CLIA '67 and extended them to include any facility performing a clinical test. Currently, under CLIA '88,

A phlebotomist will often be on hand nearly anywhere medical treatments are being performed. This is a profession that is necessary as treatments for any illness often require blood tests to determine how to proceed. The cell's or a person's blood are tested to determine the cause of an

Consults with physicians, hospital personnel and independent and hospital laboratory personnel regarding common laboratory problems.

In the article Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium, by Sox, the author’s focus was on the three fundamentals and ten professional responsibilities that are bestowed on medical professionals today. These are principles and guidelines that we, as medical professionals, should consider and adhere to daily while performing our duties. Although all the points made in the article are important there are a few that can be incorporated into the Medical Laboratory Scientist’s everyday performance. In my opinion, these principles are improving quality care, patient confidentiality, scientific knowledge, professional competence, and professional responsibilities. In addition, I would incorporate always having the patient’s best interest at

The lab technicians or nurses will specifically focus on the patient’s skin, organs, bloodily fluids, and anything that will tell them what might be the problem the patient is facing as well as how to cure/treat the patient. At this point, the patient’s part in decision has

In conclusion, I feel that the states should have licensure for laboratory scientist if they choose to work in a clinical laboratory. The arguments for outweigh the arguments against state licensure as well as both ASCLS and ASCP are in support of such action. The laboratory field has a broad range of option for a laboratory scientist to choose with options in research, clinical or even forensic with each having a different impact on the public. The clinical laboratory has the most the most immediate impact on the health of people in the community making the people working in those laboratories responsible for accuracy and quality of the patient testing. I explained that difference between certification and licensure is that the licensure was

My Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis; that’s what set my mind to being a Medical Lab Technician. As an optimistic freshman, I had a mindset that my 4 years of high school would go smoothly with flying colors; I was taking my first college class, AP World History. However, mid-year that mindset changed. I had been having major knee pain for 2 weeks with high fever, it was agony. My parents immediately took me to the hospital because my primary physician thought I had Kawasaki. As we were waiting in the emergency room, I could feel my parent’s consternation. I’m the first born with one younger sister. I can’t picture how distraught my parents would be if their first child passed away at such a young age with so much academic potential. Along with that, it had been less than a year that my grandmother passed away so my mom was truly

The overall position of minorities in society has influenced their cultural development concerning science-related careers. Minorities have always been separated from the dominant individuals, and through time have received less opportunities. This helped shaped some of their culture, where engagement and interest in science isn’t clearly present. Most of the parents are in the service or other industries and don’t expose their kids to science-related occupations on a regular basis. This lack of

Laboratory technicians work on test or diagnosis, treatment, and prevents any kind of other diseases that may be harmful for others, also workers set up the equipment’s. When they are doing the diagnosis they tend to “collect and study blood samples to determine the number of cells, their morphology, or their blood group, blood type, or compatibility for transfusion purposes, using microscopic techniques.”(Medical and Clinical Laboratory Career, 01Apr. 2016.) For them to find the right disease and what treatments that needs to be taken, they must know Mathematics, biology, and the presence of normal or abnormal components. So it is very important for laboratory technicians to work extremely hard on their job because the patient’s life is in

The article Controlling Blood – Culture Contamination Rates focuses on the contamination of blood cultures; and as health care professionals, how can we be better educated ourselves to the indicators that are causative agents to blood culture contamination. Taking into consideration, studies have shown when a facility has dedicated Phlebotomist, contamination rates is lower.

Following good work practices and strategies for error prevention can make a considerable reduction in the pre-analytical errors. The process redesign, healthcare professional training or retraining can improve the quality of blood samples. The steps involved in pre analytical phase are critical for good sample quality and to get reliable results, which help clinician in accurate diagnosis and treatment. The improvement strategies are essential to minimise the error risk due to continuous staff changes and staff with inadequate skills. The educational and training programs must be conducted often to phlebotomists and medical staffs to reduce the risk of errors and to improve the sample quality. The development of improvement strategies showed a reduction in pre analytical sample errors and the indicators demonstrated sample errors are reduced between 2-3 fold, in comparison haemolysis error benefited more with this improvement strategies. The patient satisfaction with the laboratory services also increased after the improvement strategy according to the annual survey (Lillo et al, 2012).

Among the growing shortages of doctors and nurses, are skilled laboratory professionals. These shortages can affect the quality of health care for patients in all health care organization. There has been such a tremendous growth for this profession and a great demand for laboratory testing. Currently, hospitals say it takes as long as twelve months to fill open laboratory positions. “The American Society for Clinical Pathology, which certifies lab professionals, says that average job-vacancy rates currently top 50% in some states.”(Wall Street, 2009) The information that laboratory professionals add to patient care is of the upmost importance and cannot be emphasized enough. Laboratory professionals have critical roles in patient care. Laboratory testing performed by the skilled professionals is the foundation for most all of the medical diagnoses and treatments made by physicians. “The general job responsibilities of clinical laboratory scientists and technicians, involve the collection and analysis of body fluids, tissues, and cells in order to diagnose and

One thing that is consistent in healthcare is that healthcare is forever evolving. With the concept of evolution, one particular area that plays a major role in how the healthcare system evolves is revenue. In addition, healthcare facilities receive payment for the services provided. When exploring healthcare services reimbursement there are checks and balances that must take place. The healthcare provider orders services such as radiology and laboratory services that can be provided to a patient. Next, the facility sends a claim to the insurance company. Depending upon how the healthcare facility has coded the service and the documentation deeming the service as medically necessary determines if the facility receives payment for those services. This research is focusing on the laboratory in relation to healthcare reimbursement. To start, one must focus on the background of healthcare reimbursement and how it pertains to the laboratory. Next, it is important to look into the practices of reimbursement in the laboratory for the services provided including the rates that are currently enforced. Lastly knowing what fees will aid in the laboratory receiving the maximum reimbursement.