Efforts to bolster lab interest
launched
by Mary
Helen YarboroughPublic Relations
A faceless army of highly specialized medical professionals touches a part of virtually every patient who enters the hospital. These people who perform the tedious tasks needed in medical diagnoses are laboratory technologists and technicians. They operate the instruments and perform the tests, read the results and inform physicians and nurses on conditions ranging from the perceived mundane to absolute critical 24 hours a day.
Celeste Rouse, a
lab technologist in the microbiology lab, places a specimen on a
culture medium.Of the 286 professionals who work in MUSC’s laboratories, 153 are in medical technology roles, said Donna McClellan, MUSC’s director of Laboratory Services. But that technical army is dwindling. Their numbers are succumbing to an aging workforce and a decline in certified clinical laboratory programs required to qualify professionals seeking to fill vacancies. The anonymity of the profession has added to a lack of public awareness that would help inspire career-seekers to enter the field.
In response to this growing crisis, McClellan urged changes and initiatives to help reverse the trend. To start, McClellan looked at other reasons for the shallow talent pool, and part of the problem was money.
With the help of Helena Bastian, Medical Center Human Resources director, McClellan was able to get the salary ranges increased. For lab technologists, starting pay increased during the past five years from a base of $29,000 to $40,000.
Lab technicians’ starting pay also got a boost—to $28,454. McClellan said the main difference between lab technicians and lab technologists is the level of education. Technicians have an associate of arts degree in medical laboratory technique, and technologists have, at a minimum, a bachelor of science degree in clinical laboratory science.
“We are where the nurses were some years ago,” McClellan said. “We’ve got a shortage, and the pay has not been adequate for the complexity of technical knowledge and skills needed.”
McClellan then sought support from the S.C. Hospital Association (SCHA) and helped forge cooperation from a dozen other hospitals in the state that also face the same workforce crisis. Together, they are embarking on a recruitment, training and education mission unlike any other in the country.
April Ellefson, a
lab technician in the molecular biology lab, pipettes, or places,
specimens in test tubes.Starting this year MUSC, through SCHA, has agreed to pay the full tuition of a qualified recruit from South Carolina to get certified through the nearest university, Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) in Savannah, Ga., which offers a bachelor's degree in clinical laboratory science. Previously, MUSC recruited students from the AASU program eventually returned to their home state of Georgia.
“We want people from South Carolina who want to stay in South Carolina to work,” McClellan said.
AASU officials credit the dedication of medical professionals in South Carolina for helping boost what previously was lagging enrollment.
“In 2000, only four students were enrolled (in the AASU program),” said Hassan Aziz, Ph.D., head AASU’s Department of Medical Technology. “Now, we have about 70 students. The program received over 120 applications for fall of 2006, and we already have about 60 applications for fall of 2007. . … The curriculum incorporates basic skills, critical thinking, problem solving and practical hands-on experiences. This quality would not exist without the active and full support of the medical community.”
Through SCHA’s program, MUSC will pay the estimated $7,000 tuition, enable distance learning and provide supervised lab training. Space at the Charleston Memorial Hospital (CMH) laboratory is available for the students to use for online didactic lessons and student practice laboratories. In exchange, the students promise to work at least two years at the sponsoring hospital following completion of the program.
Since August, MUSC has enrolled two students in the program. McClellan said that MUSC would probably limit the program to two students a year. But another obstacle stands in the way of future classes—finding space for a new training lab. McClellan said she is not sure whether students will be able to train at CMH in the future.
“Some of the training for NAACLS (National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Services) accreditation requires students in clinical rotations to use technology and tests that we don’t use anymore,” McClellan said. “Right now, we can set up that technology in the Charleston Memorial labs. This provides students with the full realm of tests and experiences that’s very broad and enables them to be eligible to take a national certifying exam.”
McClellan said that MUSC pooled resources with Trident Regional Hospital and the Veterans Admini-stration Hospital to obtain the equipment and chemicals being used in the student labs. Each of these hospitals is sponsoring one student who will work at a sponsoring hospital laboratory at the end of the program.
“Laboratory Services is dedicated to the professional development of the technician,” McClellan added.
Technicians are encouraged to participate in an online technician-to- technologist track that AASU developed. Technicians who take advantage of this opportunity may be eligible for tuition reimbursement offered by MUSC.
Private/public partnerships
During the past 30 years, two-thirds of the nation’s clinical laboratory science programs were eliminated, including the one at MUSC. In fact, no university or college in South Carolina provides advanced laboratory science programs. Though the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg has been approached to develop such a program, any development would be years down the road, if at all. “Training programs for the clinical laboratory sciences is very expensive, which is a contributing factor in the closing of many programs nationwide,” McClellan explained.
MUSC and other hospitals are grappling with this fact: “For every seven laboratory scientists who wish to retire, there are only two properly trained to replace them,” according to Abbott Laboratories Web site.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that by 2012, 138,000 laboratory scientists will be needed to provide the critical services. “We will be lucky to have trained 42,000 by that time,” Abbott Diagnostics senior leadership said during the American Association for Clinical Chemistry annual meeting in July.
Former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson declared the lab personnel shortage to be an even greater menace to delivery of health care than the nursing shortage. Vacancy rates for five of the 10 essential laboratory staff positions are at least a 12-year high, according to the American Society for Clinical Pathology.
The problem is multi-dimensional, said Don Patton, vice president for Abbott Diagnostics global commercial operations.
“During the past 10 years, one of every three medical technology schools has closed and many more close due to low enrollment,” Patton said. “While the reduction in the number of training programs is particularly pronounced in rural areas, many urban areas have also been hit hard.”
For example, Patton said that Los Angeles and Miami do not have any medical technologist or medical laboratory technician training programs.
“Unless this trend reverses, the shortage will worsen over the coming decade—precisely the period when America’s aging Baby Boomer population is expected to require triple the number of tests performed today.”
The situation is so serious that the leading professional organizations for clinical laboratory practitioners, six government agencies and six industry partners, including Abbott, have formed the Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce. The workforce is a joint effort to identify and define the causes of the shortage and develop strategies to address the crisis, Patton said.
To slow the bleeding, Abbott launched a campaign, Labs Are Vital, earlier this year to illuminate the role of the industry. In a series of ads and an interactive Web site, Abbott has attempted to inspire greater interest in people seeking to enter the field. Its reasons mirror the MUSC dilemma—finding qualified people who understand and run advancing technology. And while some technology has replaced various functions of human hands, most of it cannot replace the need for people in the labs.
“A main goal of Labs Are Vital is to bring new solutions to the table in addressing the critical and growing shortage of qualified laboratory personnel,” Patton said.
“We see patients getting sicker and labs becoming more sophisticated,” said Mary Caduti, director of Abbott Diagnostics Communication division. “We have a lot to gain and a lot to lose. …We have the equipment people need, but there has been an evolution of skills. We need people qualified to run the tests. Everyone is doing more with less. There is a cross function in today’s labs. I don’t see lab techs pressing a button that says ‘run.’ I see a workforce that enjoys complex problem-solving.”
As part of its goal to promote the industry, Abbott also has established a program through which colleges offering training programs can be awarded grants to purchase equipment for training. In the first three months since the grant was offered, Caduti said that 110 applications were received from institutions in more than 30 states. The first wave of grants will be awarded in 2007.
Abbott has shared its promotional information with MUSC and SCHA as part of a unified enlightenment approach.
“We are delighted that members of the laboratory industry share the same vision as we do for the future of the laboratory sciences,” McClellan.
Abbott plans to advance these efforts by sponsoring more initiatives through Labs Are Vital.
As for MUSC’s McClellan, she is hopeful the day will soon come when the pay for the lab sciences keeps pace with that of nurses, and the flow of information from the bedside to the lab will continue between trained professionals.
Friday, Dec. 8, 2006
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