CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 2: LABORATORY PERSONNEL CREDENTIALING AND FACILITY ACCREDITATION 51
standards to include the amount and types of practical clinical training for institutes
of higher learning that make the requirements more consistent throughout
the state. Other states give reciprocity between those with personnel licensure,
meaning the license may be transferred from another state or even country to
another if the standards are similar. At the end of this book, there is a list of state
agencies with personnel licensure laws. The list provides information for contacting
the proper authority for specific information. (See Appendix A, States and
Territories with Laboratory Personnel Licensure Requirements.)
Several efforts to require personnel licensure by each state have largely fallen
by the wayside. During the 1970s, a host of states formed committees to pursue
laboratory personnel law following the highly publicized federal government
efforts beginning in 1966–1967 that culminated in CLIA 88. Even today, an
occasional sensationalized news story will surface, revealing horror stories of
the results of erroneous laboratory results and the incompetence of laboratory
worker(s) that led to the incorrect treatment or lack of treatment. It is usually
only then that the weaknesses of some of the licensure and credentialing methods
currently used will come to the surface.
Then, consumers and legislators will raise a hue and cry as medical mistakes
by laboratory personnel are revealed that possibly led to the needless death of a
child, for instance. But with the publicity from the past few decades, as of 1995,
only the states listed on the prior page, along with a few others, have been successful
in enacting legislation. This has been achieved only after much effort
and often against great odds due to resistance by special-interest groups, which
includes some agencies offering registry examinations that are practicing turf
protection. These organizations believe that if all states required licensure, some
of the registry agencies either would be without business or would be forced to
change the manner in which they would support the profession.
In a unique situation, New York City had its own laboratory personnel
licensure laws for years while the state of New York had a separate licensure law
for those not residing or working in New York City. On January 30, 2005, New
York City dropped its unique licensing law requiring licensure or certification of
clinical laboratory technologists and technicians, as well as cytotechnologists, in
favor of the newly passed state personnel licensure law. However, it is not easy to
accomplish the task of attaining laboratory personnel licensure laws. A number
of states have sought personnel licensure for medical laboratory personnel for
several decades. Some were successful and other attempts have ended in failure
or in a temporary halt to attempts.
Louisiana fought this battle for 5 years before the passage of a law requiring
laboratory personnel licensure—another issue on which significant differences
prevail between registering agencies and state licensure. A frequent difference in
opinion is the disparity between academic and training requirements between
credentialing bodies and states that require licensure. State licensure that is similar
between states such as that for other professions would do a great deal to
minimize this problem.
A common analogous statement used by those advocating state licensure for
laboratory personnel licensure is that plumbers, barbers, cosmetologists, electricians,
and other tradesmen, along with health care personnel such as physicians,
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