WSLH PT Blog

Bringing you clinical lab features, news, and updates via the WSLH PT Blog! If you are interested in receiving an email digest of news along with curated staff picks from around the internet, sign up for WSLH PT’s monthly newsletter, The MedLab Retriever.

Networking Tips For Laboratory Professionals

Posted on January 30, 2023 by flowerme

Imagine that you are at a conference, full of clinical laboratory professionals.
Ready to start networking?

When we network, we meet people for more information or professional contacts. However, networking is not easy, even with many years of career experience. In this article, we have provided you a list of resources to help you make better use of your next networking event. Which networking tips for laboratory professionals do you find the most helpful? Sometimes it is helpful to start by asking ourselves a few questions.

Do you want to network to:

recruit more laboratory staff?
create new, innovative scientific partnerships?
solve testing problems in your laboratory?

Reading about the benefits and strategies of networking can help us identify goals and create action steps to accomplish them. So, grab a stack of your business cards, and let’s get started.

Networking Tips for Laboratory Professionals: A Different Perspective
Sign up to watch 3 free webinars on how to network, and why it is important for clinical laboratory professionals. Learn conversational strategies for networking in person and on LinkedIn. Please click this link to register for the first webinar in this series: https://www.clinicallab.com/trends/career-development/networking-a-different-perspective-26684.

ASCP Members Can Reap the Benefits of Local Chapters
In this article, medical technologists talk about the benefits of going to local chapter meetings. Please click the link to read this article: https://www.ascp.org/content/news-archive/news-detail/2022/07/13/ascp-members-can-reap-the-benefits-of-local-chapters#

Networking on LinkedIn: Why You Should and How to Do It
You do not need to be very active on social media to find LinkedIn useful for your own purposes. LinkedIn has grown a lot as a professional social network since its start in 2003. With over 800 million users worldwide, LinkedIn offers endless networking and learning opportunities. This article discusses the many uses of LinkedIn to help you reach your goals. Please click this link to read the article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/networking-linkedin-why-you-should-how-do-tzufit-herling

Strategies for Laboratory Professionals to Drive Laboratory Stewardship
This article discusses developing formalized networks of organizational support for laboratories. Read about creating laboratory stewardship groups to improve patient care across health systems. Please click this link to read the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352551721000494

Conclusion
Whether you are new or have been a professional for decades, there are many resources to help us network. In this article, we have provided a small number of networking tips for laboratory professionals as a launchpad to help you plan. The resources that we have shared included some of the following shared ideas about networking:

Knowledge-sharing:
We share (and receive) news, advice, and guidance in professional circles and other networking spaces. Sometimes we learn from others and ourselves in surprising or unexpected ways!
Career Advancement:
In networking spaces, we meet other people who can help us grow in our careers, or find new job opportunities. Being curious and asking for help are two actions we can take to help us create new opportunities for career advancement.
Innovative Solutions:
We often gain new perspectives in conversation with others. Our creative intellect improves when we have strong professional and social circles. Increased creative cognition helps us solve problems or improve practices in our workspaces.

Reading about positive experiences and outcomes from networking motivates us to do more. Are you planning to attend a conference or another networking event soon? View our calendar to see where WSLH Proficiency Testing will be this spring. We look forward to seeing you at one of these conferences. In the meantime, we invite you to connect with us and our staff members on LinkedIn.

This article is featured in our monthly newsletter, The MedLab Retriever. Sign up to receive your digest of clinical lab news, memes, and more:

WSLH PT Blog

New Year, New You?

Posted on January 5, 2023 by flowerme

With continuing education programs, clinical laboratorians have opportunities for professional improvement year-round

New Year, New You – This social media-inspired saying marks the New Year as a time of renewed resolve to improve ourselves in some way. This feeling of renewed resolve encourages us to seek ways to continually improve ourselves in our work. As clinical laboratorians, pursuing continuing education opportunities is a key part of not only maintaining but improving the quality of our work. It is for this very reason that attaining CE credits is required for clinical laboratory scientists today to maintain certification. In light of this ongoing need for CE programs, laboratory managers may offer their staff free course offerings as part of their job benefits package to support the professional development of their staff. With this added job perk, lab managers can measure competency more closely. WSLH Proficiency Testing offers a large variety of online training and competency programs at low cost in partnership with Medical Training Solutions (MTS) at the University of Washington. These program offerings are most often used as a tool to measure staff competency, on a twice-per-year basis. In this article, we provide a question-and-answer (Q & A) section for more information about our partnership with MTS and how it benefits laboratories.

What is MTS?

Medical Training Solutions, or MTS, is a program offered by WSLH PT, which originates from the University of Washington. MTS develops and publishes online training and competency courses on a wide range of clinical topics. These topics are appropriate for a variety of educational contexts, including initial training. Educational content includes images, which also may serve as a tool for remedial training. MTS also provides management tools, such as document tracking, email notifications, and kit-specific, point-of-care trainings.

How does MTS work?

Laboratories choose programs from the list of program offerings, and may enroll with their proficiency testing order. Our best enrollment option includes all training and competency programs for 1 year for up to 30 users. The competency programs include 2 different sets of content/per year to meet competency requirements. Our point-of-care training and competency options are popular as well.

You determine the number of users on the account and then enroll. Your account set-up is part of an automated process that allows you to quickly assign one staff member or many staff members to certain selections. Then, staff receives an automated notification by email with the appropriate links to access the materials. The administrator then monitors progress and results. Account administrators can also upload their own tracking documents. CE credits are earned at the completion of the programs.

What are the different types of education provided?

Training programs include items such as Safety, Specimen Collection, Specimen Processing, and all the subspecialties including molecular diagnostics. Competency courses include 10-question multiple-choice tests related to the subject. Microscopy procedures are also available for both training and competency programs. A lecture library series is also available which includes a monthly topic as well as access to archived lectures. Over 50 CE credit hours are available upon completion of these programs, combined.

What are some advantages of using MTS?

The MTS online training and competency coursework is provided as an additional offering to participants. MTS develops programs in response to emergent and trending topics. Some advantages are:

The programs are also low-cost, especially when multiple staff participates.
You may order your MTS products alongside your proficiency testing products to make it easier for purchasing.
You are able to choose programs to meet your needs instead of being unsure of what you will receive.
Real-time reporting is also available in the competency assessment offerings, which means your score is available to view right away.

Helping you assure your laboratory’s professional training and competency goals is important to us. If you are interested in learning more, you may review our MTS programs on our website, as well as watch a short video tour. A demo account may be requested if you want to see first-hand some of the program content prior to enrolling. Please contact WSLH PT with any additional questions.

If you are interested in reading more related articles about Continuing Education and professional development resources, check out other articles on our blog at wslhpt.org/blog, or sign up to receive this content and more via our monthly e-digest, The Med Lab Retriever.

WSLH Proficiency Testing hopes that you have a great start to 2023 and that you and your staff have everything that you need to support your laboratory’s goals. Thank you for all that you have accomplished in 2022, and we look forward to providing excellent service to you and your laboratory this year.

This article is featured in our monthly newsletter, The MedLab Retriever. Sign up to receive your digest of clinical lab news, memes, and more:

WSLH PT Blog

Even A PT Provider May Experience An Audit

Posted on December 5, 2022 by flowerme

What policies and processes are in place in your laboratory? In preparation for a laboratory inspection, this is the question you have at the forefront of your mind. We also have this question at the forefront of our minds too, but for different intentions and outcomes. A proficiency testing provider may experience a routine audit, as well as annual reviews of accepted analytes conducted by an accreditation agency, such as those conducted by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). The purpose of a proficiency testing audit is to provide you with the best experience when it comes to participating in our proficiency testing services. These processes of review and approval assure that you can use our proficiency testing services alongside your accreditation agency. In this article, we share with you an overview of the auditing process, and how it impacts you, the clinical laboratory.

An Inside Look at a PT provider

The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988 are today’s standards for compliance and accreditation. Following the passage of CLIA ’88, laboratories that are reporting clinical results are mandated by law to attain CLIA certification with CMS. All CLIA-certified labs are also required to perform proficiency testing on regulated analytes with any CMS-approved proficiency testing provider. Accreditation agencies are approved to act on behalf of CMS as an accrediting body. In response, the College of American Pathologists, developed a routine process as an accreditation agency to accept PT providers. This process assures that any CAP-accredited laboratory may enroll with any PT provider that meets CAP’s requirements regarding the acceptability of materials, scoring processes, and transmission of data. Today, when CAP-accredited laboratories are choosing a PT provider, they are determining if the PT provider and the analytes they need are accepted by CAP.

In order for WSLH Proficiency Testing to be a CAP-accepted PT provider, CAP representatives audit WSLH PT services every 3 years. During the auditing process, WSLH PT shares data with CAP from laboratories that choose CAP for accreditation. The following are the kinds of questions WSLH PT answers in a CAP audit:

Are laboratories getting the information they need?
Is the information presented in such a way that is easy to understand?
Does the PT provider maintain consistency in how their technical coordinators evaluate data?

CAP representatives conclude the audit by visiting our office at the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene in Madison, Wisconsin. This day-long visit includes a shared review and discussion of key findings in data. Review and discussion of data offer insights into issues that laboratories may be encountering throughout the proficiency testing process.

All regulated analytes that CAP-accredited laboratories select from a PT provider must pass through an annual approval process to be CAP-accepted. If an analyte is CAP-accepted, then CAP will accept the score transmission of a CAP-accredited laboratory from the PT provider. Every year PT providers have the opportunity to apply for CAP acceptance for an analyte by filling out a form and submitting it by July for potential approval the following year. At the very minimum, PT providers must have 20 data points for three events in a row for quantitative analytes. For qualitative analytes, PT providers need 10 data points for three events in a row. Beyond the review of grading data, there are other criteria that CAP uses in determining the acceptability of regulated analytes. The other information that CAP requests from PT providers include, but are not limited to:

Instrumentation, methods used, and number of participants
Participant summary data for events
Number of challenges and shipments per year
Supporting documentation for analyte specifications and event data
A statement that all material vendors comply with specified product manufacturing standards

Not all regulated analytes offered by PT providers are approved by CAP; so, laboratories that want to use their materials to meet CAP’s accreditation requirements must first check with the appropriate PT providers. If you review WSLH Proficiency Testing’s clinical product catalog, you will see that any analytes that are not accepted by CAP are noted with an asterisk (*). When CAP-accredited laboratories approach WSLH PT to enroll, they know which analytes will meet their regulations with the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program.

Routine audits and annual analyte acceptance conducted by CAP assure that we can serve and provide options to CAP-accredited laboratories. Aligning our services and processes with the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program not only benefits CAP-accredited laboratories but all clinical laboratories that enroll with WSLH Proficiency Testing. Whether or not CAP is your accreditation agency, the findings we review in a CAP audit help us assure that our materials, from general instructions to evaluation reports and policies, are accurate, clear, and concise for all laboratories. This inside look into our partnership with CAP provides some insight into how we pursue collaboration, usability, and continual development to lay a solid foundation for laboratory improvement.

This article is featured in our monthly newsletter, The MedLab Retriever. Sign up to receive your digest of clinical lab news, memes, and more:

WSLH PT Blog

Free P.A.C.E. CE Webinar on Proficiency Testing

Posted on November 3, 2022 by flowerme

Watch our webinar for an opportunity to receive a free CE credit upon completion

So, you’ve failed a proficiency test–now what? While it may be difficult to move to a course of action in the moment, preparing for this scenario ahead of time can give clinical laboratory professionals the tools we need to do so, with more ease. WSLH Proficiency Testing is offering you access to a new ASCLS P.A.C.E. certified webinar, developed in partnership with the Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network (WCLN).

This webinar aims to help participants know how to follow-up, prepare, and prevent common scenarios in clinical proficiency testing. While this webinar was originally created for the WCLN, WSLH Proficiency Testing is now offering you the same educational opportunity. We hope that this webinar will provide you with useful information to share with your staff. You may access and progress through the webinar at your own pace. Upon completion, you will have an opportunity to earn a free CE credit.

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify clinical proficiency testing best practice
Increase knowledge of labs’ experiences with conducting proficiency testing
Explain what a laboratory must do when they have a proficiency testing failure

Participants will be able to take away key insights from WSLH Proficiency Testing’s technical coordinators serving on the webinar panel: Ann Hennings, MLS (ASCP) and Rhonda Stauske, MLS (ASCP). This P.A.C.E. certified webinar is graded at an intermediate level, meaning the educational content serves mostly as a refresher course with some basic knowledge of proficiency testing required for a participant to successfully complete the program objectives.

Oh no! I’ve failed a proficiency test–Now what? webinar
Please click the following link to access the free, archived P.A.C.E certified webinar
for an opportunity to earn a C.E. credit upon completion: https://slhstream2.ad.slh.wisc.edu/Mediasite/Play/72ee607528264590a210cf03037e54241d

Note:
You will need to login (or register for free, if you are not a member) on the ASCLS CE Organizer webpage in order to claim your free CE credit. Once logged in, please click the Claim Credit tab in the top navigation bar. Then click on the ASCLS State and Regional tab to locate ASLCS-Wisconsin. You will find the webinar listed by date for November 2nd, 2022. Check the box to the right to select this credit. You will be prompted to enter in the information needed from there.

Over the past few months, our technical coordinators at WSLH Proficiency Testing collaborated with other experts at the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene (WSLH) to support an educational training opportunity, as part of a series of educational webinars offered by and for a network of clinical labs in Wisconsin. This network of clinical labs is known as the Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network (WCLN), which is coordinated by Erin Bowles, MLS (ASCP), who we featured in an article last year about her unique role as a medical laboratory professional in providing outreach and support to clinical labs throughout the State of Wisconsin. We also featured the history of the WCLN, which offers outreach and resources to support emergency preparedness, disease surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, training and education, and communications. WSLH Proficiency Testing collaborates with other entities at WSLH to add value to the labs we serve. From our most recent collaboration with the WCLN, we hope you find this webinar to be a helpful resource for your staff.

As part of WSLH Proficiency Testing’s mission to improve laboratory quality for all, providing educational opportunities to promote career competency and achieve leadership development goals are very important to us in our unique role as a PT provider that is backed by a national public health lab and a Big Ten University. To learn more about other resources we offer labs, please view our resources page on our website at: wslhpt.org/resources. If you are interested in online training and competency courses to offer to your entire staff as a benefit for their professional development, please keep in mind WSLH PT’s comprehensive offerings of online training and competency MLS courses.

If you have any questions about the content we cover in this free PACE certified webinar, please do not hesitate to reach out to WSLH Proficiency Testing: ptservice@slh.wisc.edu. Our team is happy to help yours, anytime. Supporting the quality of your lab is our mission.

This article is featured in our monthly newsletter, The MedLab Retriever. Sign up to receive your digest of clinical lab news, memes, and more:

WSLH PT Blog

Paving the way for future MLS professionals

Posted on September 26, 2022 by flowerme

Chemist takes new apprenticeship route to Medical Laboratory Science certification

If you’ve swam at Hoyt Park, or dipped your toes in the water along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Milwaukee, you’ve got laboratory professionals to thank for monitoring water quality day-after-day. For the past four years, Rebeca Pinhancos had been responsible during summers for testing and monitoring microcystins in the city’s lakes. Primarily, she worked in Lead analysis as a chemist at the City of Milwaukee Public Health Department (MPHD). At this point in her life, she knew she needed a change in her career. Nearly a decade ago, Rebeca started her educational journey in Analytical Chemistry at UW-Madison. Then, what drew her to her studies was the desire to solve problems using the power of scientific inquiry and analysis. Today, it is this very same desire that pulls her back to learn more, but this time while she works.

Rebeca began to research job positions at hospitals, and had discovered that degrees specializing in clinical laboratory science exist! She learned that many, if not most, certified medical laboratory scientists obtained their educational requirement for certification this way. Little did she know that during her research she would find an alternative path to certification through the State of Wisconsin’s first and only Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) apprenticeship program.

Rebeca Pinhancos is one of the first two participants in the MLS apprenticeship program, which was launched in January 2022 by Mike Baron at Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL). At the time of hire, Rebeca knew she was going to be an excellent asset and have a lot of growth opportunity from the start, with her degree and 10 years of experience in Liquid Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry (LCMS). She was pleasantly surprised to learn several months later on the job that WDL would be directly supporting her track to certification by offering her inaugural participation in the MLS apprenticeship program. The MLS apprenticeship program, was designed to provide an alternative path to certification for individuals with relevant science degrees. The apprenticeship model, applied as a recruitment and retention strategy within the Clinical Laboratory Science profession, may provide the kind of quality training, instruction, support, and institutional capacity-building to help address the problem of staffing shortages at clinical laboratories.

“When I was approached with the apprenticeship proposal, I thought, wow, you are also going to pay for my schooling too?! That’s great,” Rebeca said. Rebeca added that when she started attending classes at MATC, she ran into one of her former students, who was very surprised to see her there heading to a classroom, and not as an instructor this time. Before coming to work for WDL in 2021, Rebeca also served as an Instructor of Biochemistry at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) for a two years. Attending MATC under the apprenticeship program certainly has given Rebeca a lot of unique perspective, having now both attended and taught classes at the institution.

“I am really grateful that the coursework is an important component of my experience as an apprentice. You really need the coursework to put the bench work into context,” said Rebeca. “You can train people to run the benches; but, if you encounter something unexpected and you do not know why it happened, the coursework aids you in readily identifying the problem, and how to pivot to find a solution.” With just over 75% of the apprenticeship program completed, Rebeca will begin preparing for the exam to become certified in Chemistry in 2023. Afterwards, once she gets enough qualifying hours on the Hematology bench, she will take the exam to become certified in Hematology.

She is looking forward to the next cohort of apprentices at Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories. “With any new program, there is more opportunity to improve and grow,” Rebeca said, adding that she is grateful to be a part of that experience, and to extend what she’s learned to the new participants next year. “I really like the idea of alternative approaches to Clinical Laboratory Science. It’s kind of how we have to operate these days,” Rebeca said. “Not everyone starting out school is going to know that they want to be working at a hospital as a clinical laboratory scientist.”

For qualified candidates interested in joining the MLS apprenticeship program, individuals with a relevant science degree, in chemistry or biology for example, are encouraged to visit WDL’s career webpage and explore their non-certified technologist positions currently open. Apprentices are hired on a rolling basis, as non-certified positions become available. On-the-job training begins once hired, with classroom instruction beginning at the start of the new semester. To learn more about Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories, visit: www.wisconsindiagnostic.com

WSLH PT Blog

Growing MLS Certified Leadership

Posted on September 2, 2022 by flowerme

New Apprenticeship Program Aiming To Make MLS Career A Dream Come True For Many

It was the 1980s. Mike Baron had freshly stepped out active service in the armed forces, and with a wife, a child, and another child on the way. Mike was hungry for a job, but not just any job. With a Bachelor’s of Science (BS) degree on his resume, Mike had been exploring many different employment avenues, but none of the options that he had encountered at the time were particularly fulfilling, or paid enough to support his growing family. One day, Mike saw an advertisement in a local Illinois paper for the Rockford Memorial Hospital, announcing that they were hiring individuals with BS degrees to become certified Medical Laboratory Technologists through on-the-job experience. Mike was hired, and placed under the supervision of certified Medical Technologists for a year before becoming certified himself. Mike could clearly see that this was a place that could provide him growth in his career, and where he could make a real impact on life-saving healthcare. That is how Mike Baron, Executive Director of Clinical Laboratory Operations at Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories, got his start as a medical laboratory professional over 30 years ago. Mike says that he is living proof that taking an alternative route to becoming a certified Medical Laboratory Technologist is a viable and beneficial option, and wanted to extend the same opportunity today. This year, through the establishment of Wisconsin’s first and only Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) Apprenticeship program, Mike is collaboratively repaving the route to certification that he took decades ago, aiming to provide a more sustainable way to address staffing shortages and assure the longevity of the profession.

In partnership with the State of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), Mike and the rest of his team at Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL) launched the MLS Apprenticeship program in January 2022. Individuals with science degrees from an accredited four-year college or university are recruited to become certified medical laboratory professionals upon completion of the apprenticeship program. Once a candidate is hired, WDL provides the hands-on experience to attain the skills, which is accompanied by on-site or in-the-classroom curriculum provided by MLS instructors at the Milwaukee Area Technical College and Madison College. The MLS apprenticeship program is a Wisconsin Certified Apprenticeship, meaning that the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development partners with industries, area technical colleges, and private training centers throughout the state to provide individuals a path to a career. Historically, many technical industries in Wisconsin, from cheese processing to building construction, have been the primary sites for apprenticeships. Mike Baron recognized within the apprenticeship model the kind of quality training, instruction, support, and institutional capacity-building that could benefit clinical laboratories greatly. These are the qualities Mike says, that make the MLS apprenticeship program a key strategy in the recruitment and retention of medical laboratory professionals.

“We are at a critical juncture where we cannot ignore the problem of staffing shortages any longer,” said Mike. “We are working together with the State of Wisconsin to close the gap in staffing our laboratories with certified, experienced Medical Laboratory Scientists.”

Mike’s career path was made possible by the CLIA Amendments of 1988, which served as a national response to staffing shortages by allowing clinical laboratories to hire and train qualified individuals to become certified Medical Technologists after a period of supervised on-the-job training. Three decades later, the recruitment and retention of lab staff is, now more than ever, a perineal problem that has been studied, discussed, and written about many times over. Forbes magazine indicated in their April issue this year that clinical laboratories across the United States are 20-25,000 short on staff, approximating “roughly one Medical Laboratory Scientist per 1,000 people.” Other factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of MLS programs and departments across the United States have further exacerbated the recruitment and retention of quality, certified lab staff. Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories’ MLS Apprenticeship program was designed, Mike says, to serve as a critical response in addressing the needs of today’s clinical laboratory, by creating with intention a quality program for more individuals to become certified Clinical Laboratory Scientists through the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).

“We had no problem finding people who are straight out of college, motivated, and looking for some type of work in the science industry, and we can sell it easily in terms of giving them a lifelong career,” said Mike Baron.

The program’s two inaugural participants are about 75% of the way through towards completion of the apprenticeship. Since January, they have been working under the supervision of WDL’s Medical Laboratory Scientists conducting on the job training, and gaining the theoretical knowledge needed through classroom instruction provided by local area technical colleges. Once trained and certified, students are not required to continue working for WDL, but are given plenty of incentives for them to stay, Mike adds. WDL employees who may decide, upon completing the MLS apprenticeship program, to move to another clinical laboratory for work is one way that the MLS apprenticeship program can broaden its positive impact throughout the United States in the future.

For qualified candidates interested in joining the MLS apprenticeship program, individuals are encouraged to visit WDL’s career webpage and explore their non-certified technologist positions currently open. Once individuals submit an application for consideration of a non-certified technologist position, if they meet the requirements, the candidate will move through the selections process for an interview with Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories. Apprentices are hired on a rolling basis, as non-certified positions become available. On-the-job training begins once hired, with classroom instruction beginning at the start of the new semester. To learn more about Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories, visit: www.wisconsindiagnostic.com

This article is featured in our monthly newsletter, The MedLab Retriever. Sign up to receive your digest of clinical lab news, memes, and more:

WSLH PT Blog

Final rule from CMS & CDC on PT programs

Posted on August 2, 2022 by flowerme

On July 11, 2022, CMS and CDC issued a final rule [CMS-3355-F] to update proficiency testing (PT) regulations related to analytes, acceptable performance for laboratories, and administrative processes for proficiency testing programs established under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA). The final PT rule considers improvements in accuracy and precision of testing since 1992 and new and emerging technologies.

The effective date of the revisions to PT requirements (§§ 493.2 and 493.801 through 493.959) will be July 11, 2024, two years after the publication date of this final rule in the Federal Register. The delayed effective date reflects the timeframe PT programs will need to produce or acquire PT samples to meet the revised regulations and incorporate any updates to PT reporting requirements. In addition, laboratories will need time to prepare and enroll in proficiency testing to meet the new requirements once the samples are available from the PT programs. However, the regulations related to laboratories performing tests of moderate complexity and high complexity testing that also perform waived testing and proficiency testing enrollment (§§ 493.20 and 493.25) will be effective 30 days (August 10, 2022) after the publication date of this final rule.

WSLH Proficiency Testing will keep you up-to-date in our communications on how we are aligning our PT programs with the final PT rule. If you are not already receiving our monthly newsletter, please sign up here to receive relevant updates and more. You may also follow WSLH Proficiency Testing on LinkedIn to receive information directly to your newsfeed. If you have any questions, please review the fact sheet on the CLIA website, or download the fact sheet directly here.

You can download the final rule from the Federal Register at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/11/2022-14513/clinical-laboratory-improvement-amendments-of-1988-clia-proficiency-testing-regulations-related-to. You may also go to https://www.federalregister.gov/ and search for “CMS-3355-F.”

WSLH PT Blog

The Search For CE Credits

Posted on June 6, 2022 by flowerme

Continuing Education for Laboratory Staff

Continuing education instills in us a culture of life-long learning, which is intrinsic to the ever-changing nature of our scientific profession as laboratory professionals. There are a lot of resources available that offer both formal and informal training for a variety of purposes that help us achieve our professional development goals. For many laboratory professionals who work in CLIA certified clinical labs, it is required to complete continuing education credits to maintain certification with the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP). Cost can be a big factor in our search for credits, especially for those much sought after ASCP P.A.C.E.® certified credits. In this article, we look at some of the available resources by cost, review some pros and cons commonly associated with those resources, and discuss how lab staff can be supported in their efforts to attain continuing education credits.

Gaining Continuing Education Credits through ASCP
If you are one of those Medical Technologists who works to maintain their “MLS (ASCP)” certification every three years, finding reliable and affordable ASCP P.A.C.E.® certified credits can be a challenge. For many of us, we are constantly on the search, asking our clinical lab peers for recommendations on where to find free or low cost courses. Some companies and organizations that offer free, on-demand PACE® certified units include ARUP Laboratories, Beckman Coulter, and CDC Train, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s training system. To search for free, PACE® certified courses in CDC Train, select the option of “Free Courses” under “Common Filters” and “PACE” under “Credit Type” in the Filters side bar on their continuing education course offering page.

Some Pros and Cons to Searching for Free Continuing Education Credits
There are certainly pros and cons to individuals finding their own free Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The availability of courses that are free is certainly one of the primary factors in an individual’s decision to conduct their own search for resources. However, a few of the cons that have encouraged some laboratory professionals to purchase access to online training and course competency tests include “peace-of-mind” and an “easy experience.” For example, many individuals are familiar with ASCP’s continuing education credits; and may choose to pay for their courses. However, if an individual is expected to cover their own costs associated with attaining credits, then monetary investment may be a deciding factor in choosing to “go the free route.” Given such pros and cons in gaining CEUs, laboratory managers are increasingly offering their staff access to CEUs as a job perk, or advantage, to help their employees maintain their certification.

Providing Continuing Education Credits to Staff as a Job Perk
Increasingly, laboratory managers are offering free and easy access to attaining CEUs by purchasing continuing education packages for their staff. With WSLH Proficiency Testing for example, lab management can purchase training and competency bundles at minimal cost with access for up to 30 users. Additional users may be added for a small fee. WSLH Proficiency Testing partners with the University of Washington’s Medical Training Solutions (MTS) to offer online training and competency courses. This low-cost fee helps WSLH PT’s partner instructors assure that the 50+ Continuing Education (CE) coursework is fully customizable and stays in step with emergent learning trends. Full customization means that clinical labs can select their own tests tailored to staff training and individual professional development goals, as well as upload, streamline, and track your documentation. You can also expect high quality multimedia content developed by the University of Washington. Clinical labs can learn more, view products, and request a demo account online on WSLH Proficiency Testing’s website.

Other Preferences for Attaining Continuing Education Credits
Whether or not the CEUs are attained for the primary purpose of maintaining certification, continuing education helps lab staff fulfill their needs and desires to expand their knowledge base and gain leadership skills as they progress in their careers. According to an article published by Lab Manager in 2019, laboratories indicated a variety of preferred training methods beyond the realm of attaining CEUs, such as: monitoring quality trends, conducting annual employee training documentation reviews, taking a class, attending workshops and joining a committee of a professional association. For those who can leave the bench for a day or so, attaining Continuing Education Units (CEUs) at conferences is one of the preferred ways many laboratory professionals receive the CEUs and other forms of training needed to stay current. For those attending conferences, ASCP and AACC will be hosting conferences in-person this year. The 2022 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo will be held on July 24-28 in Chicago, Illinois. The 2022 ASCP Annual Meeting and 100^th celebration will be held in Chicago, Illinois as well on September 7-9. Continuing education credits will be available for attendees to earn at both of these conferences.

Conclusion Within the healthcare field, technology and testing protocols are ever-changing to meet today’s needs. To help us navigate our increasingly demanding jobs to gain continuing education credits, many more online offerings are available than ever before to bridge the gaps in training access. Having immediate access online and studying at your own pace can help to better balance all of the other necessary tasks in your day-to-day workload. Lab managers are also stepping in to provide easy access to their employees through purchasing continuing education packages that can be customized for their staff’s needs. There are a variety of ways people attain CE credits and other forms of training to help them succeed. Our purposes vary as well, from gaining CE credits for maintaining certification to developing our leadership skills needed to progress in our careers and to transition into leadership roles. However you are working towards professional growth goals, WSLH Proficiency Testing wishes your team the all the best in your pursuits and achievements.

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Developing ourselves, together through service

Posted on April 29, 2022 by flowerme

We all know that making connections and continuing our education matters for our development as clinical laboratory professionals. Joining a professional clinical association can be an excellent avenue for boosting our professional development. There are countless benefits for our membership in a professional association. We network and connect with others at conferences hosted by professionals associations, for various reasons. We obtain continuing education credits (CE) at conferences and year-round online. We also take other avenues to educate ourselves and others through training and competency coursework offered by colleges or other providers dedicated to clinical laboratory improvement. Taking advantage of these learning opportunities help us stay proficient in our knowledge, skills, and abilities and helps us stay up-to-date on industry trends. What we may not always take into account is the beneficial return we receive when investing some of our precious time and energy to take on a leadership role or invest in our education. Clinical laboratorians are very busy year-round; how do we justify the time we spend on our professional development initiatives?

Our time and energy is precious. If you are thinking about volunteering, be sure to spend plenty of time reflecting and discerning why you’re taking on a leadership role. Choosing volunteer opportunities that provide a selections process can help determine if the project or committee goals align with your professional development and leadership goals. Regardless of the organization’s process, understanding why you are getting involved can help determine if the service position is relevant to you, and a nourishing environment for your development. Do you want to deepen your professional relationships? Do you want to find ways to increase knowledge-sharing in the industry? Do you want to develop your leadership competencies to help you step into a managerial role? It is important when considering your involvement in a professional association that you feel an enthusiastic “Yes.” If you are feeling neutral about the subject, you may need more time or different questions to determine your interest. If you are not feeling enthusiastic about getting involved, it may mean that other areas of your work and life need your attention and care instead.

Volunteering can significantly impact our learning experience, assuming that our model of leadership development is based primarily on direct, practical experience. Taking on a leadership role with a professional association can therefore be a great way to supplement our current on-the-job experience. Seeking volunteer experiences outside of our industry and in the communities where we live also provides us learning and leadership opportunities that we can carry with us into our careers. There are so many skills that you already use every day at work and at home. What do you want to learn? When seeking volunteer opportunities outside of work, cross out the “can do” skills and focus on the “want-to” skills – the ones that you could see yourself using every day without getting bored. Learning skills outside of work that you will enjoy will help you develop strengths that can impact your career and quality of life in ways that you may not expect. Start out by recognizing the strengths that you are already using in your everyday life. Print out a list of strengths or gifts, circle the skills and abilities that you have and underline the ones that you want. Don’t forget to add your own, if you do not see your particular strength or gift listed!

If you are interested in getting involved in a professional association, maintaining annual membership is the very first step, of course. There are many national and international professional associations with regional and state chapters where you can get involved. Below, you will find a list of the professional associations known for their substantial membership and volunteer opportunities. Click on the hyperlinked text to discover ways to get involved, including governance councils, program committees, and communications teams.

AABB: International, not-for-profit association representing individuals and institutions involved in the field of transfusion medicine and cellular therapies. Formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks.

Get Involved: AABB Assessor, Mentoring Program, Committee Membership, Junior (Student) Committee Membership, Social Media Collaboration, Leadership-Run for Office, Transfusion Medicine Section, Cellular Therapies Section, AABB Hub (Knowledge Sharing Forum)

American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC): International society comprised of medical professionals with an interest in clinical chemistry, clinical laboratory science, and laboratory medicine.

Get Involved: Local AACC Sections, Scientific Division Leadership Roles, Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians, AACC Artery (Knowledge Sharing Forum)
American Society For Microbiology: Promotes and advances the microbial sciences as one of the largest life science societies in the world.
Get Involved: Guide the Organization, Shape the Science, Build Community, Advocate, Train & Mentor, Communicate Science
American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science: Mission is to make a positive impact in health care through leadership that will assure excellence in the practice of laboratory medicine

Get Involved: To serve on a national committee, sign up here. To view the list of national committees available to ASCLS
members, click here. To volunteer for state or local committee positions, contact your local or state chapters of ASCLS.

American Society for Clinical Pathology: Mission is to provide excellence in education, certification, and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists, and laboratory professionals across the globe

Get involved: Public Policy, Career Ambassador 2.0, Patient Champions, Partners for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa, Center for Global Health, Choosing Wisely, Social Media Team, Governance and Member Councils, ASCP Product Development, and BOC Exam Committees

CLMA: An international association whose mission is to empower laboratory professionals to achieve excellence in leadership through forward-thinking educational, networking, and advocacy opportunities

Get Involved: Regarding CLMA Chapters, ASCP is now coordinating the activation of CLMA Chapters in your local area. For 2022, ASCP is waiving the Chapter administrative fee, as CLMA members transition to membership with ASCP.

Getting involved by volunteering, whether with a professional clinical association or with a community organization of your choosing, is a great way to reflect on the strengths you have and to gain the strengths that you want. Giving time to reflect and ask ourselves discerning questions can help us frame our thinking in ways that align our achievement values, professional goals, and leadership development choices. Developing our professional selves with more care and intention helps us become more aware of our strengths and areas of improvement as leaders, helping us joyfully grow our impact for ourselves, each other, and for next generation of clinical laboratory professionals. When we purposefully engage ourselves in community-centered, learning experiences, we open up the doors for more leadership opportunities in our career, and beyond.

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Enhancing The Role of Lab Professionals In Patient Care

Posted on April 4, 2022 by flowerme

Every year during Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, we are reminded that 70 percent of “today’s medical decisions depend on laboratory test results.” Medical Laboratory Professionals get the results that make an impact on patient care. How lab test results are interpreted is another story that does not often appear in discussions surrounding this statistic. Having more discussions on the interpretations of lab test results is an issue occupying the foremost concern and attention for many laboratory professionals. Such an issue has certainly received more focus with the release of key reports in professional journals and their coverage by industry media within the past 7 years. In response to the Institute of Medicine’s 2015 report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, everything from doctoral programs to informational, on-the-job handouts, have been produced to address the interpretation of results with the following solution: enhance the role of the clinical laboratorian on the patient care team. Enhancing the role of clinical laboratorians, with the knowledge, skills, and abilities that they bring, is vital in providing the most informed diagnosis. The kind of problem-solving strategies developed to enhance our role demonstrates that education is at the core of the solution, educating ourselves and educating our colleagues outside of the lab. The solutions that manifest always result in a more highly collaborative team of healthcare professionals.

In 2015, the Institute of Medicine released a report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, stating that diagnostic errors affect 5% of US adults seeking outpatient care each year, and contribute to approximately 10% of patient deaths and 6% to 17% of hospital adverse events. The report indicated that diagnostic errors cause patient harm, and attributed the statistical occurrences to a gap in communication between physicians and laboratory professionals. Increasing intentional collaboration is required in order to close the gap, and, ultimately improve the diagnostic process, the report concluded. Not long before the release of this report, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Clinical Laboratory Integration into Healthcare Collaborative (CLIHC) conducted a survey to determine the strategies necessary to address this gap in communication. In the survey, family and general internal medicine physicians reported uncertainty in ordering diagnostic tests in 14.7% of patient encounters and 8.3% uncertainty in interpreting results. The survey also found that only 6% of the physicians surveyed consult laboratory professionals at least once a week or daily. In fact, this was the least frequently reported approach to discerning what test to order and how to interpret the test results. Those 6% who did contact laboratory professionals indicated that it was in response to “confusing ordering options on the computer/electronic medical record” or, “when the lab results do not match the patient symptoms.” It is clear from these statistics that uniting the laboratory with direct patient care is a key component in improving the diagnostic process.

How do we work together to minimize the occurrence of misdiagnosis? Researchers, educators, and others in the field know that the role of the laboratory professional and the knowledge of laboratory science is a vital component on healthcare teams to improve diagnosis. According to the February 2017 issue of Laboratory Medicine, “Some laboratory professionals have become an important member of the clinical team by providing interpretive comments, developing reflex testing programs, and participating on multidisciplinary and diagnostic management teams.” Certainly the creation of the Doctorate in Clinical Laboratory Science (DCLS) program within the past decade has enhanced the role of clinical laboratory scientists on diagnostic management teams (DMTs) today.

Brandy Gunsolus, DCLS, MLS (ASCP)CM, was the first graduate of a DCLS program, graduating from Rutgers University in May 2018. Gunsolus documented her training and her thoughts from the field as a DMT leader in her blog, The Road To DCLS. Here she frequently writes about what many laboratory professionals wonder: what kinds of questions do physicians ask her? She answers that some of those questions may be highly complex, requiring more training on the part of lab staff. However, she says she also answers many questions that “virtually every medical laboratory professional should be able to answer.” Regardless of your official job title in the lab, Gunsolus emphasizes the importance of obtaining CEUs, as they are “essential to us staying current in our profession.” There are excellent online CEUs as well as those offered in-person conferences, like those offered at the ASCLS Joint Annual Meeting. Regarding online resources, WSLH Proficiency Testing, in partnership with the University of Washington’s Medical Training Solutions (MTS), offers customizable online training and competency courses to help labs achieve professional development goals.

“Education is always the key!” Gunsolus says on the importance of including laboratory professionals on healthcare teams. “We must educate ourselves and educate our other healthcare professionals if we are ever going to improve our profession and our patient’s care and safety.”

A brief and compelling look at a few key statistics give us a helpful snapshot of the current climate of laboratory and patient care staff relations. A deeper look at what is being done today will further demonstrate that healthcare teams must work with and include laboratory professionals in order to improve and maintain accurate and reliable patient diagnoses. Stories of today’s clinical lab trailblazers like provide a unique vantage point regarding what is required to develop mutually-informed, highly collaborative diagnostic teams. Education is required, and takes a two-pronged approach: 1) Educate Others: Include laboratory staff as knowledge-sharers and team members in patient care delivery, and 2) Educate Yourself: Strive to obtain CEUs regularly, and find other professional development opportunities to stay current. Enhancing the role of the clinical laboratorian in the diagnostic process and on patient care teams will, in turn, greatly impact our visibility to the public as a healthcare professional and as a viable career choice. Laboratory professionals get results each and every day. In honor of your important contributions to healthcare, WSLH Proficiency Testing would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for all you do to make a difference.