Labs Are Vital - Article Archive

When a large hospital laboratory resolves to remake itself, the process is rarely painless. Renee Rockwell offers her single most helpful piece of advice: "Communication, communication, communication." "And," she adds, "Did I mention communication?"

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The nursing and pharmacy professions are experiencing very serious—and very public—labor shortages. But a parallel crisis among the nation's clinical laboratories, while every bit as dire, has only recently started to gain recognition.

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Irina Lutinger is a lab director who is not afraid to be noticed—and she has put a lot of thought and energy into making sure her laboratories are highly visible and their contributions appropriately appreciated. Lutinger, MPH, MT (ASCP) DLM, is Senior Administrative Director, Clinical Labs, at New York University Hospitals Center. There, she has built a council with a representative from each laboratory area whose charge is to promote the laboratory image hospital-wide. Three initiatives stand out.

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A recent college graduate, Sharon Bobryk, CLS(NCA), MT(ASCP), works the midnight shift in the blood bank at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. She believes firmly in the value of getting involved—and of giving back.

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Michael Laposata, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor, Harvard Medical School, found that by pursuing a career in the lab, he was able to follow his love of research—and still teach and practice medicine.

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As a former president of the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS), Shauna Anderson, PhD, CLS (NCA), had seen her share of unprofitable lab science educational programs that were forced to close their doors. Yet she's hopeful that the trend is beginning to reverse itself.

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Lab Tests Online is a valuable web resource dedicated to helping patients and carers understand better the laboratory tests used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Labs Are Vital is delighted that the website has now been launched in several more countries and that it's gone multi-lingual too!

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A lab is only as good as the people who run it. Elizabeth Mobarak, Director, Business HR, Abbott Diagnostics Division, US Commercial Operations, shares her insights on how to select and nurture the strongest possible team.

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>> Industry Trends

Deborah Brock, MHS, MT(ASCP), SH, has four new offspring: Erl, Petri, Hema and Unit. Known as the "Lab Explorers," they are the stars of a children's book series that demystifies clinical laboratory science.

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Let's face it. When you turn around, there doesn't appear to be anyone waiting in the wings. Today there are roughly two newly minted clinical laboratory scientists for every seven who want to retire.¹ Unless drastic action is taken, in the very near future there will literally be no one to staff the labs.

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There is a consistent trend in health care dynamics: New technology must deliver improved outcomes while reducing overall costs. In the past, the focus has been on efficiency: swifter turn-around time and fewer errors. In the future, the focus will shift to creating clinical value that is connected to economic benefits: treating the patient as a consumer, and conducting complex, genome-based tests with de facto higher reimbursement levels. Robert Michel believes that those clinical laboratories which recognize the potential of highly personalized offerings have bright financial futures.

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Paul L. Epner Director of Health Care Improvement Initiatives for the Diagnostics Division of Abbott Laboratories. Vice-Chair of CLMA Patient Safety & Quality Committee.

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>> Lab Management

Strong performers need to know they have a future with you. Keep the lines of communication open, and help them grow to meet their full potential.

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When the core laboratory at the University of North Carolina got a series of incident reports that all stemmed from poor communication, they decided to face the problem head-on. Here, Connie Bishop describes the ambassador program, its genesis and its reception.

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Some employees have a special spark. Differentiate between good performance and exceptional performance--and when you find excellence, nurture it, praise it and promote it.

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Some problems are so overwhelming, you can’t take them on by yourself.

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Before you fill a position, define exactly what skills the employee will need to be successful.

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A successful interview focuses on real- life experience, not theoretical responses.

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While a standardized curriculum provides a solid foundation, professionalism and leadership development should be continued after graduation; professional associations are an excellent resource.

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Before you fill a position, define exactly what skills the employee will need to be successful. Then probe for behavior that illustrates those skills during the interview.

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"Why is morale low in the lab? You have a department of over 200 highly qualified, educated, bright people and they feel like factory workers. They have little opportunity to interface with physicians and patients, which would make the job interesting; they are just cranking out results."

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When Richard C. Friedberg, MD, PhD, Chairman of the Baystate Department of Pathology and Medical Director of Baystate Reference Laboratories, looks 10 years into the future, he sees a world where patients are in charge of their own medical care. "Just as people take a greater role in their retirement plans, we also are headed toward greater individual responsibility for personal health care. Even today, some consumers have direct-access testing, and some also have access to their own medical records on some sort of personal device." Though laws today vary from state to state, across the nation we are migrating towards greater patient autonomy.

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"I believe that in information technology there are four types of "Wares": Hardware, Software, Warmware, and Beware. Warmware refers to the human aspect, everyone who has to reengineer their expectations and their habits when new technology is introduced. The success of any new technology depends on those people—so you need to Beware if you don't have their full participation, cooperation and enthusiasm."

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With their resources stretched thin and demand for their services growing, labs are struggling hard to become more efficient without sacrificing accuracy or output. Here, two experts offer their views on eliminating error and waste.

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It's a matter of economics. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for the stand-alone hospital laboratories to function in today's marketplace as expenses increase and reimbursements continue to decrease," observes Randall Vandevander, C.L.S. (NCA), M.T. (ASCP), Director of Technical Operations at Carilion Consolidated Laboratories." That is why over the last ten years there has been more and more system growth."

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>> Education and Career Planning

Mara Williams, MS, MT (ASCP) Director, CLS Training Program at San Jose State University, California, talks about licensure, the difficulties applicants have passing the state exams, and the steps her program is taking to address those problems.

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Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is already all around us. It lets us breeze through highway tollbooths, enter car garages, track library books, and unlock doors with our identification badges. Embedded in wrist bands it monitors prisoners' whereabouts—and alerts a computer if tampering is attempted. It is the basis of SMART cards, a form of electronic cash.

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Hopefully you are familiar with two new programs designed to promote the value of clinical laboratory services and the professionals that provide the services.

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Randall Vandevander, CLS(NCA), M.T. (ASCP), Director, Technical Operations, Carilion Consolidated Laboratory, sees education as a lifelong process—and a center stone for success.

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Geraldine Albee, MA, CLS(NCA), CNMT, Director, CLS Training Program at San Francisco State University, California, has been focused on increasing the pool of qualified applicants—and the options they have for internships. Here, she speaks about the opportunities she sees and her strategies for capturing them.

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Distance learning has often had an image problem. Even when it was practical, it was dull. Lectures came by closed circuit live television or, sometimes slightly better, repeat broadcasts. Tests came back and forth by mail or fax or computer and were generally manually graded.

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Zoe M. Rodriguez, MBA, MS, MT(ASCP), Corporate Director of Laboratory Services at the Kennedy Health System in southern New Jersey, has fulfilled—and perhaps exceeded—her childhood ambition. She believes being a med tech is the perfect job for an inquisitive person.

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The continuum of care relies on a healthy chain of communication. When the chain breaks down, care can be compromised. The Augusta Medical Center in Virginia has a simple solution to strengthening its connections: Laboratory Liaisons. These laboratory professionals partner with specific nursing units throughout the hospital to build working ties that are relatively unique in the industry.

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Michael Astion, MD, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, Reference Laboratory Services and editor-in-chief of Laboratory Errors & Patient Safety, has parlayed excellent experiences in high school science into a career improving patient care by enhancing laboratory safety.

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Paula Garrott, EdM, CLS (NCA), Interim Associate Dean and Director and Associate Professor Emerita of Clinical Laboratory Science, College of Liberal Art and Sciences, University of Illinois at Springfield, says that if you are bored in this field, you have allowed yourself to be “because there is something new going on all the time.”

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Seminole State College students working in the medical laboratory will be trained with some of the latest technology available, thanks to an award from the Labs are Vital™ grant program.

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As a high school student, Cody Coco had never contemplated a career in laboratory science. He couldn't have: "Until I came to college, I didn't even know it existed," says Cody, a student in the Clinical Laboratory Technician Program at Louisiana State University at Alexandria.

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Without question, the department of medical laboratory science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth deeply appreciates the new hematology analyzer it recently received through a grant from Abbott Diagnostics. But its wish list is still a long one.

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Linda Fell, MS, MT (ASCP) SH, UNMC, director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska believes that no one should have to leave their home for a job opportunity. That conviction led Linda to develop a successful remote laboratory learning program that for the last 15 years has enabled Nebraskans to earn a CLS degree close to their home communities.

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C. Anne Pontius, MBA, CMPE, MT (ASCP), president of Laboratory Compliance Consultants, Inc., and Laboratory Compliance Officer, Duke University Health Systems, believes that compliance is a smart career path for laboratorians, one with a number of interesting side roads.

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Irina Lutinger, Senior Administrative Director, Clinical Labs, New York University Hospitals Center, believes you can be anything you want to be, as long as you apply passion, determination and hard work.

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Rick Panning, MBA, CLS (NCA), President of Laboratory Services at Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota, believes that to succeed you have to know where you want to go—and sometimes you need to make a decision to move out of your area of comfort.

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In the language of the laboratory, information is presented as "data." Patient experiences are related in "case studies." Learning and teaching happen through "example."

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Anand Dighe, MD, PhD, Co-Director, MGH Core Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, was named one of the Top 25 Innovators in the June 2006 Health Imaging & IT Magazine. He believes "the real product of the laboratory is information."

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"The clinical laboratory scientist (CLS) program at San Jose University just did a study. In Northern California, the average age of a clinical laboratory scientist is 57 years old. Can you imagine? But we can't just complain about the laboratory shortages. We need to work together to solve them." The words belong to Caroline Satyadi, DLM (ASCP), MBA, MS, CLS, SM, President of E-SAT Consulting, and brand-new President of the Northern California Chapter of CLMA. Fortunately, she has some very clear ideas about how to move forward.

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"People would find it laughable if a radiologic technician handed a CAT scan back to the primary care doctor, and the radiologist just said 'Call me if you have a question'," says Michael Laposata, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Professor, Harvard Medical School. "We have to recognize that the same complexity exists in the clinical laboratory."

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Bernadette Bekken, Program Director at the School of Clinical Laboratory Science at the August Medical Center, has "done it all," from working in a large city hospital to a bush hospital with no electricity, and from working in a reference lab to teaching CLS students. Most recently, she has served as president of the ASCLS. Throughout her career, she has seen "the gamut of opportunities in the industry and the huge contributions that laboratories make to the health care system."

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>> Labs Are Vital™ in the News

News: Labs Are Vital program supports community programs to promote lab careers

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Wiesbaden, 04 August 2010 — Representatives of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Klinische Chemie und Laboratoriumsmedizin (DGKL) and the Labs Are Vital Initiative signed an official agreement in Wiesbaden confirming a long-term cooperation project.

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8 September 2009 - 3,000 pathologists gather to hear just-published studies and learn about the newest assays.

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30 July 2009 - Labs ARE vital in Africa. Several African governments are coming together to strengthen the continent’s labs. Without this effort, the death toll will rise significantly.

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July 20, 2009 - Abbott-Sponsored Initiative Elevates Role of Laboratory Professionals in Response to Growing Workforce Shortage in the Nation’s Clinical Labs.

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Scott Becker, MS, executive director A recent collaboration with APHL member Abbott Laboratories has yielded an exciting new recruitment tool for public health laboratories.

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This year's Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management drew over 650 clinical lab managers and executives to Miami, Florida, for a vibrant discussion and debate on the future of the clinical lab. The Executive War College is a unique two-day program designed to help laboratory administrators and pathologists learn practical methods for improving the organizational performance and financial success of their laboratories. One issue affecting this success is the growing workforce shortage.

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The laboratory took nearly three weeks to prepare. The management and staff drafted new policies and staged full-scale drills with makeshift props. "We made a pretend bag of blood and went through a dress rehearsal so that when the day came, the technicians felt very comfortable in what they were doing," explains Zoe Rodriguez, MBA, MS, MT(ASCP), Corporate Director, Laboratory Services, at The Kennedy Health System, a system of three hospitals and multiple ambulatory sites in southern New Jersey, outside Philadelphia.

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The problem had been going on for weeks: Extreme abdominal pain. Chills. Sweats. Nausea. Endless, sleepless nights. Weight loss. And, most puzzling, a strange rash on his thigh. He had been to the clinic, and even the emergency center—more than once—to no avail.

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On July 19 of this year in Chicago—on the eve of the start of the world's largest gathering of lab professionals, the AACC annual meeting—Abbott Laboratories announced a new initiative designed to explain to patients and healthcare professionals the critical role that laboratory medicine plays in healthcare. Built around the theme "Labs Are Vital," the multifaceted education and awareness initiative focuses attention on the life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide in diagnosing disease and improving health outcomes.

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Labs Are Vital and the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry Establish Award for Excellence in Outcome Research

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A Celebration of Sorts Chicago, IL—On the eve of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) 2006 Clinical Laboratory Expo—one of the largest gatherings of lab professionals in the country—Abbott Diagnostics announced an initiative dedicated to educating, fostering and celebrating the critical role the clinical laboratory plays in health care.

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To coincide with National Pathology Week 2008, the lab at Luton and Dunstable Hospital opened its doors to hospital colleagues and the general public. The aim was simple – to show that the lab exists and describe what it does.

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May 3, 2009 - "In the midst of uncertainty about the H1N1 influenza virus, the job of laboratory workers in medical and scientific facilities has become more important." CNN contributor Bob Greene said in a commentary on Sunday. "Work done in laboratories is heavily relied on times of medical crisis, such as the current swine flu situation, since it is in labs that vaccines and cures for crippling diseases are found."

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USA TODAY September 21, 2007 Section A, Page 10

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Over the past few months, more laboratory professionals around the world have been introduced to Labs Are Vital through program launches in four new countries: Australia, Switzerland, Germany, and Brazil. Each Labs Are Vital launch is executed in partnership with key laboratory professional associations, and is supported by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), paving the way for true global influence.

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Labs Are Vital is connecting with public health laboratory professionals at the 2008 APHL Annual Meeting and Second State Environmental Laboratory Conference this May 18-21 in St. Louis, Mo. The ad below will be featured in the annual meeting program, encouraging public health lab professionals to join the Labs Are Vital effort and to register as supporters at LabsAreVital.com.

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In its April issue, Medical Laboratory Observer included a special feature on the clinical laboratory workforce shortage, and how industry groups like the Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce (CCCLW) and initiatives like Labs Are Vital™ are actively working to turn the tide on growing vacancy rates in labs across the country. During CCCLW's recent two-day strategic planning session, Labs Are VitalTM sponsor Abbott and 14 national and regional laboratory organizations collaborated to build a practical vision for the future of the laboratory profession.

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This April, lab professionals in the United States celebrated the 33rd anniversary of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, which was created to celebrate the contributions of clinical laboratory professionals and to recognize their indispensable work on behalf of patients.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than two-thirds of registered voters believe clinical lab testing translates to monetary savings for the healthcare system. This insightful finding was just one of several noteworthy nuggets reported at the April 18 launch of a nationwide campaign aimed at emphasizing the important role clinical laboratory testing can play in creating a cost-efficient healthcare system for the 21st century.

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Seminole State College students working in the medical laboratory will be trained with some of the latest technology available, thanks to an award from the Labs are VitalTM grant program.

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Facing a massive shortage of scientists, the medical diagnostics industry has turned to viral advertising.

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Whether it's creating a CSI spoof or producing a video of growing things in a Petri dish, show why students should choose a career in lab sciences and you could win one of several scholarships and other prizes!

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Abbott's recruitment initiative, as part of its Labs Are Vital™ program, aims to recruit college and high school students to clinical laboratory science through a peer-to-peer approach, including a scholarship contest on the popular online networking site Facebook.

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Every once in a while you run into someone who's so passionate about something it really gets you jazzed about it with them. It's what once led me (and I'm sure others) to work at a nonprofit organization for a time-excitement is contagious.

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Labs Are Vital™ and its student recruitment initiative were featured this month in Critical Values, the publication of the American Society for Clinical Pathology. The initiative was recognized for its innovative use of peer-to-peer outreach to introduce high school and college students to dynamic career opportunities in laboratory science. The magazine showcased Labs Are Vital's recruitment outreach efforts, including its use of the social-networking Web site Facebook and a new, student-focused micro site, LabScienceCareers.com, to facilitate a student scholarship contest.

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Mexico joined the Labs Are Vital™ campaign by launching the program at the XXXI National Congress of Clinical Biochemistry of the Mexican Association of Clinical Biochemistry (AMBC), which was held from 4-7 May in Chihuahua, Mexico.

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Louisiana State University will have another downtown presence here in January to accommodate the growth of the allied health program.

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Initiative elevates role of laboratory professionals and focuses on finding new solutions to address the growing workforce shortage in the nation's clinical labs.

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A group of laboratory professional organizations hosted a collaborative spring meeting titled "Laboratorians: The Ultimate Team Players in Patient Care," May 14 – May 16 at the Crowne Plaza in St. Paul.

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MLO, October 2007 Attracting and retaining talented people is one of the most important issues when we consider anticipated shortages in the number of qualified science, engineering, and med-tech graduates five years from now.

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Comedian Rodney Dangerfield's signature line was, "I don't get no respect." Undoubtedly, most laboratorians can relate to his long standing problem. But Abbott Diagnostics' new initiative is aimed at changing that sentiment.

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Stephen Martin, PhD, D(ABMLI), is Director of Laboratory Services, OPH Laboratories in Louisiana. And on August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ripped across the Gulf of Mexico and hit land, bringing Category 4 winds to bear on the Louisiana levee system, his job scope changed. The resulting floods left nearly 2,000 dead and thousands homeless. Those floods also partnered with downed power lines and other wind damage to wreak havoc with the state's public health laboratory system—with consequences that will last for years to come.

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Currently, as many as 40,000 clinical lab science jobs are unfilled because of labor shortages.

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A team of laboratorians recount the events of July 11, 2006-the day an employee of the Hy-Vee supermarket chain, Iowa's largest employer, slit open a letter and found a suspicious white powder.

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One of the most exciting bits of news I received at the recent annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) in Chicago is that Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL) is spearheading a public relations campaign to support clinical lab science. The campaign, dubbed simply "Labs Are Vital," is long overdue and very welcome. At the dedicated Web site (www.labsarevital.com ), Abbott has outlined details of the program and is soliciting comments and suggestions.

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The work laboratory professionals do is paramount to health care—and everyone should know just how critical they are to the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of human health.

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At a time when health care consumes 14 percent of the country's GNP, clinical labs provide a significant level of value—contributing up to 80 percent of the objective information used to make diagnostic decisions, while making up only five percent of a typical hospital budget.

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>> Archived Labs Are Vital eNews Communications

In This Issue:

Happy New Year from Labs Are Vital
Holiday eCards
Fun downloads... and more!

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In This Issue: - IFCC Euromedlab Innsbruck - EFCC and Labs Are Vital Announce an Award for Outcome Research in Laboratory Medicine - SBAC- Brazil

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In This Issue: - Labs Are Vital at the Clinical Lab Expo in Chicago - Labs Are Vital Report Supplement - New Labs Are Vital Websites

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In This Issue:

Labs Are Vital launches a new Web site!
How to update your Supporter Profile as a returning registered supporter.

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>> Advocating For the Profession

>> Industry Trends

>> Lab Management

>> Education and Career Planning

>> Labs Are Vital™ in the News

>> Archived Labs Are Vital eNews Communications