CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 2: LABORATORY PERSONNEL CREDENTIALING AND FACILITY ACCREDITATION 37
agencies have little to do with personnel requirements or facility accreditation
except that certain types of annual training may be required of the employees as
a condition of employment under the category of inservice education.
While facilities voluntarily ask for accreditation to present themselves as
abiding by a certain set of standards associated with given professions, becoming
accredited does not substitute for licensure when a license is required by a
government agency. The accreditation process for facilities that mostly includes
hospitals may require that the facilities adhere to both institutional and state
standards. These standards encompass a number of occupational areas in which
they mandate that all personnel be certified in some manner by professional
agencies. In a typical hospital, there will be specialized workers, of whom some
are certified, some are registered, and some are state licensed.
Examples of these differing methods of documenting competence of the
workers would include licensure laws for registered nurses, pharmacists, and
many other professional groups working in a hospital. Medical laboratory
workers are most often registered with a major body such as ASCP or American
Medical Technologists (AMT), although in a number of states, personnel
licensure for laboratory workers is required. As of this writing, the following
states require personnel licensure or require that licensed laboratories hire only
credentialed personnel: Florida, Hawaii, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Louisiana,
Tennessee, Nevada, New York, West Virginia, Montana, and Georgia. Some
health care positions only require certification, in which the training program is
normally shorter than those requiring college degrees. An example of a certified
worker is the certified nurse assistant (can).
Personnel Certification or Licensure
It would be wise at this time to be reminded that the term “certification” may
include achieving personnel licensure, meeting the requirements through a registry
examination, or mere certification, which indicates a certain level of training
but is something less than an academic diploma or degree. Merely attaining
a certificate for laboratory workers is no longer an option, but it is possible for a
limited number of health care workers other than clinical laboratory employees.
The clinical laboratory assistant (CLA) position was an option at one time but is
no longer available as a laboratory training program for entry-level laboratory
workers.
Another reason that professional registries for medical personnel exist stems
from a desire by members of the various professions to control their own destinies
rather than a governmental agency licensing them through a licensing board
composed in part of non-medical professionals. The term “registered nurse,” or
RN, stems from just such a train of thought, and even though nursing licensure
is now mandatory in all states, the term has persisted.
Registering agencies often will not allow any medical program graduates
to take a registry examination unless they have graduated from a program that
is accredited by an approved agency, but some proprietary for-profit schools
will often advertise themselves as being “accredited.” However, the accrediting
body may have no credibility, as the system sanctioning the program may be an
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