Doctor Information and Courses from MediaLab, Inc.

As a clinical laboratory worker, your role is vital in the health care process. You provide information to doctors, nurses, and healthcare organizations that is vital to proper patient care. Because your role is so important, you must be properly qualified, trained, and licensed for your position. You must also keep up with the latest laboratory techniques and developments by fulfilling continuing education requirements. And you are bound by a code of ethics, which ensures that patient results are accurate, reliable, and free from error and bias.

The accuracy and safety of patient testing depends on the capability and honesty of clinical laboratory personnel. If an individual's ability to perform testing is influenced by illness, injury, drug use (legal and illegal), or alcohol use, he or she may no longer practice. The Board can order a doctor's exam to determine if illness, injury, drugs, or alcohol is a factor. The individual can get his / her license back after recovery and proving that the condition is no longer a problem. If an individual commits a crime in any state relating to matters of honesty (such as filing false reports or advertising false services), that individual's Florida license may be suspended. Other licensed personnel who know that an individual is practicing despite being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, is physically or mentally incapable, has been convicted of a lab-related crime, or is not competent to perform his / her duties are required to report the individual to the Board. The following are violations of Board rules:Continuing to practice after becoming unable to safely perform testing because of illness or use of alcohol or drugs, or another mental or physical condition. Continuing to practice after being judged mentally or physically incapable.Being convicted of any crime relating to activities of clinical laboratory science or involving dishonesty or lack of morals. Failing to report to the Board that one has been convicted of a crime (as listed above), been judged mentally or physically incapable, or had a licensed revoked in another state. Knowingly allow an unqualified person to perform clinical laboratory duties.

All employees have a responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of medical information. Medical information should never be discussed outside of the laboratory. It should only be discussed with the ordering doctor or an authorized representative of the doctor. Employees should verify the identity of the individual requesting such information Employees who communicate with patients, physicians or their office staff, insurance company representatives or government employees about any laboratory activity should only give information they know to be true and accurate. Employees should never give false information and should never guess the answer to any question. In case of doubt, refer the person to a supervisor.

It is not against the law for a laboratory to have different fee schedules for different billing situations.Most laboratories have one fee schedule for customers that must be billed individually (patients, insurance, Medicare) and one for customers billed monthly on an invoice type of statement (client or doctor billing).The difference in price between the two schedules should be a reflection of the financial benefits of direct client billing.Test prices should be determined by means of a financial analysis that include such factors as cost, market value and reasonable profit.Contractually arranged pricing that results from negotiations with insurance and managed care companies should at least cover costs of testing.Laboratories may not work together to fix or set prices in the market place.

Anytime an order is not clear, the physician office must be contacted.Do not use information supplied by a patient to clarify an order. Patients cannot add tests on their own. If a patient insists they want tests not specifically ordered by the doctor, the doctor should be contacted.When transferring a doctor's order from a non-standard form like a prescription pad to a laboratory requisition, it is important to ensure the accuracy of the order.Attach the original order document to the requisition sent to the laboratory.Follow all laboratory policies about panels and profiles, ambiguous orders and reflex tests.

Busy hospital laboratory in a 350 bed urban hospital that provides laboratory testing for the hospital and for the hospital's outreach testing laboratory. A medical technologist in the microbiology department receives a call from a friend who works in a laboratory in a physician office. The physician is not a regular client of the laboratory currently but uses another laboratory for most of their work. The microbiologist knows that the sales department would like to get this account. The friend explains to her that she is doing a quality control check on her in-office microbiology testing and her regular laboratory will do it but is going to charge her for it. She asks the microbiologist if she will do it for free since it is quality control, not Medicare and is not going to be billed to anyone.She tells the microbiologist that she would like to use the hospital lab for everything but her doctor insists on using the competitor. She indicates that the favor might help get the doctor to try the hospital laboratory for other tests. The microbiologist should:Correct Answer: Explain to her friend that if the hospital does the tests for no charge on the promise of other referrals, both the physician office and the hospital could be liable for violations of the antikickback statute.Discussion: The antikickback statute is implicated in this scenario because the free testing is solicited on the condition that other referrals may occur as a result of providing the favor. In fact, the solicitation itself is a violation of the law. The fact that Medicare patients are not specifically mentioned in the scenario is not sufficient to remove the risk. The technologist should also report the incident to the Compliance Officer and seek advise about what documentation, if any, should be kept concerning the incident.

When the results on Mr. John Ready were called to the nurse, she was very surprised that the result of his CBC was normal. The nurse explained to the lab tech that Mr. John Ready had a known diagnosis of lower GI bleeding. His hemoglobin had been very low for the past 24 hours because of the internal bleeding, and she thought it was very surprising that his hemoglobin had normalized so quickly without having received a blood transfusion. Mr. Ready’s doctor decided the patient should be redrawn to ensure a correct result. The nurse further questioned if the phlebotomist could possibly have drawn the wrong patient because earlier that day Mr. Ready had been moved to room 831, and room 825 was presently occupied by a patient named Walter Redding. If Julie had checked the patient’s armband, she would have realized that the patient in 825 was the wrong patient.Relevant topics:Importance of patient ID, Patient identification continued, Specimen labeling, Specimen labeling Continued, Blood bank specimens

The phlebotomist collects blood & other specimens which ultimately provide doctors and nurses with laboratory test information critical to patient care.He or she therefore plays a vital role in any health care system.