The Continuing Shortage of Medical Technologists a Challenge for Hospital Labs

The shortage of medical technologists, a critical asset for both clinical and histopathology lab operations, should be a concern of all of us. I am always eager to provide new information about this topic when it becomes available. Hence my interest in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (see: Staff Shortages in Labs May Put Patients at Risk). Below is excerpt from it with boldface emphasis mine:

Like the growing shortages of primary-care doctors and nurses, the shrinking ranks of  skilled lab workers pose a potential threat to the safety and quality of health care, medical experts warn. Hospitals say it currently can take as much as a year to fill some job openings. And the American Society for Clinical Pathology, which certifies lab professionals, says average job-vacancy rates currently top 50% in some states. The group is lobbying for federal and state funds to keep some academic training programs alive and raise awareness of the problem....Barbara McKenna, president of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, says younger workers haven't been attracted to the field, which requires the same level of education as nursing but doesn't pay as well. Starting salaries for lab technicians range from about $27,000 to $58,000, depending on the job and level of education. And requirements for licensing and certification of lab technicians vary from state to state, which can make it hard to relocate....Lab workers toil in obscurity deep in the bowels of most hospitals, and most people don't know much about the field....Lab-science-training programs are expensive to run, and while some new degree programs have been started, a third of the training programs at colleges around the country have closed down over the past decade. That bodes poorly for hospitals seeking to fill job openings. The federal government estimates that 138,000 new lab professionals will be needed by 2012 to replace technicians expected to retire, but only 50,000 will be trained by that time.

Below is a table from the WSJ article using data supplied by the American Society for Clinical Pathology regarding lab medicine and pathology personnel shortages by various categories. As you can see, the most acute shortages encountered are for medical technologists. The training for medical lab technicians is shorter, less expensive, and less demanding, which may account for the lower vacancy rate in this job category. There is continuing confusion in the media about the distinction between medical technologists and medical technicians, although the table gets it right. Technologists have a bachelor's degree whereas technicians are only required to have an associate degree. The "starting salaries for lab technicians" quoted in the article above, $27,000 to $58,000, seems to me to be low for medical technologists so, I suspect, the figure covers both technologists and technicians.

I believe that the trend of medical technologist shortages will continue but most of the attention in the media will be paid to shortages of nurses. This will result in an even greater disparity between the salaries of nurses versus medical technologists in hospitals. This trend is accentuated by the fact that the nursing field is more unionized than medical technology and nurses thus have more bargaining power. The work of medical technologist/technicians is largely unrecognized by the general public but no less so than that of pathologists and lab scientists. This largely stems from the fact that these healthcare professionals have little interaction with patients and are also not known for their efforts at self-promotion. I would also like to get away from references about working in the "bowels" of the hospital.

Comments

[pirates of Caribbean 4]

The "starting salaries for lab technicians" quoted in the article above, $27,000 to $58,000, seems to me to be low for medical technologists so, I suspect, the figure covers both technologists and technicians

[Samiksha Tondon]

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