CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

50
ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
so many societies involved in the credentialing of laboratory personnel, it is currently
extremely difficult for any consistent standard to be used in evaluating the
competencies of medical laboratory personnel by accreditation site visitors.
State Licensure for Laboratory Personnel
In the Journal of American Medical Technologists (McBride, 1978), no fewer
than seven agencies were listed as being involved in evaluating by examination
the competencies of medical laboratory personnel. This did not even include
the states that now require licensure of laboratory personnel. These states—
California, Hawaii, Florida, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Louisiana,
Nevada, West Virginia, Montana, Georgia (facility-only license), along with the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico—have their own licensure examinations and
standards. By 2005, New York State passed a revised requirement for personnel
licensure in facilities that employ medical cytotechnologists, laboratory technicians,
and technologists. The standards imposed by these states and one territory
(Puerto Rico) are acceptable to the federal government as they meet or exceed
the standards imposed by Medicare and Medicaid.
Over the past few years, efforts to require personnel licensure in other states
have continued or renewed, but most states and territories with existing personnel
laws have had these laws since 1978 or earlier. If it is difficult for laboratory
managers or hospital administrators to know about all of the agencies that
offer credentialing, how much more difficult is it for third-party payers or the
consumer to determine if the personnel performing the diagnostic testing are
competent? On the surface, it apparently costs no more for laboratory testing in
a laboratory where only well-qualified personnel work than in one where marginal
or questionable credentials are held by the laboratory technical staff.
State Personnel Licensure Efforts
The term licensure is generally authority given to a state by legal permit from a
constituted body. Only a few licenses are granted by the federal government, such
as licensing of airline pilots under the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and the
Federal Communication Commission (FCC). But it is mostly a function of the state
government in most cases for the purpose of protecting the public from potential
harm from unscrupulous or incompetent practitioners. In states where licenses are
required, it is illegal to practice a profession covered by the licensing regulation
without a license. Penalties may be severe, and not being certified by licensure makes
it more difficult, if not impossible, to get a job in the field of work in question.
Some states and some medical facilities also require certification in addition
to licensure to fulfill continuing education and professional advancement issues.
This is because some personnel credentialing agencies and some professional
organizations also require continuing education to maintain professional accreditation.
For specific information, it may be necessary to contact the state in which
you wish to work for specific requirements for employment in the laboratory.
Most states require documentation of certification from agencies sanctioned by
the state as being acceptable in their standards. Some states even have educational
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.