Critical Values - January 2009 - (Page 7) Volume 2 • Issue 1 • January 2009 The Elephant in the Room I have been in some form of medical care delivery for almost 40 years. For nearly 20 of those years I was a clinical microbiologist. I got out of the laboratory business not because I didn’t like the work. I loved being a microbiologist. The bottom-line truth was I could not make a living. Plus room for advancement was small. I have found that no one wants to deal with the heart of the issue, that is, the economic role of the pathologist in the laboratory. The economics are such that the pathologists are too highly compensated for the work that they do. Let’s look at this from another angle. The pharmacists have no MD supervision. The physical therapists have no MD supervision. Their compensation is twice that of a medical technologist. As long as the structure of the lab is under the pathologist, the economic depression for medical technologists will continue. This is the elephant in the room that no one ever seems to want to discuss. James D. Hamilton, M(ASCP)SM, MBA, FACMPE Principal Executive Somerset Health Care Group Spencerville, IN Shortage Is All about the Money It all comes down to recognition and salary. Why don’t the lab managers and pathologists take on the hospital administrators and get our salaries commensurate with our responsibilities? I speak at high school medical skills classes and am a member of the school district Medical Skills Advisory Board. I give pros and cons of working in a lab, but am honest about the salary issue. Until I can go into the classroom and proclaim that these jobs are respected and financially rewarding, I can’t see an end to the shortage. Until the information about lab careers is introduced at a national level to pique the interest of science students, this shortage will not go away. Julie H. Sinclair, MT(ASCP)SC Farmington Hills, MI Great Issue, Great Timing! I came across this great issue of Critical Values because we are writing a CommunityBased Job Training grant from the Department of Labor to expand and build the capacity of our Histo and MLT programs. This grant supports workforce training for high growth/ high demand industries by building the capacity of community colleges. What great timing to find this issue! Tyler M. Winkler Resource Development Officer Florida Community College Jacksonville, FL 7
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