2003 Workforce Survey of Hospital Clinical Laboratories in New Jersey

Clinical Laboratory Science, Spring 2005 by Keohane, Elaine M, Schaad, Mary Ellen, Feeney, Karen

ABBREVIATIONS: CT = cytotechnologist; HLT = histotechnologist; HT = histotechnician; MLT = medical laboratory technician; MT = medical technologist.

INDEX TERMS: job opportunities; workforce.

Clin Lab Sci 2005;18(2):100

The clinical laboratory personnel shortage has reached significant proportions in many areas of the country and there is growing concern about its impact on the accessibility and quality of clinical laboratory services. For the years 2002-2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a need for 138,000 new clinical laboratory technologists and technicians, or approximately 13,800 peryear, due to growth and attrition from the field.1 On the other hand, in 2002, there were only 3,548 clinical laboratory technician/medical laboratory technician (CLT/MLT) and clinical laboratory scientist/medical technologist (CLS/MT) graduates in the U.S.2 If the current imbalance between vacancies and graduates continues, the national shortage of clinical laboratory personnel may grow by more than 10,000 laboratorians per year. In surveys conducted by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), vacancy rates in 2000 for medical technologists (MTs) and medical laboratory technicians (MLTs) were 11.1% and 14.3% nationally and 14.9% and 24.5% in the northeast; in 2002 those rates showed a decrease to 7% and 8.6% nationally and 8.3% and 3.5% in the northeast.3,4 Although the vacancy rates in the latter study decreased to single digits, the vacancies are nevertheless noteworthy in terms of the actual number of vacant positions, taking into consideration a national workforce estimated at 297,000 clinical laboratory technologists and technicians.1

A Coalition for New Jersey Clinical Laboratory Personnel was formed in April 2002 to study the extent of and address a perceived shortage of clinical laboratory personnel in New Jersey. This coalition consists of twenty-eight members representing hospital clinical laboratory administrators, supervisors, and educators; hospital human resources directors; and representatives from the New Jersey Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, New Jersey Clinical Laboratory Management Association, New Jersey Hospital Association, the New Jersey State Department of Health and Senior Services, and New Jersey Medicaid. One of the goals of the coalition is to document and disseminate data on the supply of and demand for clinical laboratory professionals in the state. An unpublished study conducted by the New Jersey Society for Clinical Laboratory Science showed a 48.5% decrease in MLT and MT graduates since 1998, with only 26 MTs and 21 MLTs graduating in 2003 in the entire state. In addition, during that same time, the state experienced the closure of one MT and three MLT programs. There are no histotechnologist (HTL) programs, and only one histotechnician (HT) program in the state, but that program recently went into inactive status. There is also only one cytotechnologist (CT) program. In 2003, these programs produced only seven HT and five CT graduates.

Although there was some anecdotal information from New Jersey laboratory managers about difficulties in hiring qualified laboratory practitioners, there was insufficient data on vacancies and shortages for these practitioners in the state's workforce. Therefore, the Coalition conducted a survey of hospital clinical laboratory managers to determine the extent of the clinical laboratory personnel shortage in NJ, and to begin a data collection process to project workforce needs into the future.

METHODS

In January 2003, a one-page survey was mailed to the clinical laboratory managers of the 95 hospitals in NJ. Surveys were coded for tracking purposes. A second survey was sent in March 2003 to the non-responders, followed by phone contact.

The survey requested data on county, hospital size, total number of billable tests, total current budgeted FTEs, the number and age of clinical laboratory employees in six categories, the number of current vacancies, and the average time it took to fill vacancies. The six personnel categories included MT staff, MT supervisor, MLT, HTL, HT, and CT. In addition, managers were asked to indicate if they had difficulties hiring or recruiting for a particular position, department, or shift, and if they had incentives in place to hire laboratory personnel. All survey responses were received between February and April 2003, and were reviewed, tabulated, and summarized.

RESULTS

A total of 55 surveys were received for a response rate of 57-9%. Forty-nine (51.6%) of the surveys contained data that were usable in the analysis, and represented data from hospitals in fifteen of the twenty-one NJ counties (Table 1). A majority of the surveys (31) were received from the Northern NJ counties.

Forty-seven percent of the usable responses were from hospitals with greater than 300 beds, while 53% had less than 300 beds. A total of 33,094,905 annual billable laboratory tests were reported by 39 hospitals, ranging from 97,800 to 3,822,755 per hospital. A total of 2,697 total budgeted FTEs were reported by 49 hospitals.