Medical Laboratory Scientist 2, HMC Microbiology Laboratory

About This Role

Medical Laboratory Scientist 2s assist the Manager and MLS Leads with coordinating educational programs for staff and students, provide training and performance feedback, and assist with daily operations. This role is with the Microbiology Team at Harborview Medical Center (HMC), which is the only designated Level 1 adult and pediatric trauma and verified burn center in Washington state. The HMC Microbiology team performs mycobacteriology testing for patients and clients throughout Washington state, including acid-fast bacilli smears, Mycobacterium tuberculosis PCR, organism identification, and susceptibility testing.

Responsibilities

• Exercise knowledge, judgment, and decision-making skills needed to recognize, troubleshoot, correct, and document problems associated with patient testing, quality control, and preventative maintenance
• Assist in the instruction and training of employees, post-doctoral fellows, residents, medical students, medical technology students, etc. Provide evaluation feedback in a timely manner
• Actively participate in continuing education activities, e.g., Plate Rounds, CAP online education, reading job-related journal articles, etc.
• Assist in the development and evaluation of new procedures/processes and assess the relevance and accuracy of current procedures/processes
• Review the work of staff to ensure reports are correct and clinically relevant. Ensure corrected reports are issued ASAP, and timely corrective actions are taken and documented. Consult with healthcare providers concerning critical or abnormal findings
• Utilize information management systems to accession, status, verify, and reject orders. Input test results using the laboratory information system
• Ensure critical values, STAT results, courtesy notifications, and routine results are reported according to established protocols so that turn-around times are consistently within guidelines and documentation is complete
• Ensure quality control standards and competencies are met and documented; ensure preventative maintenance is performed according to established protocols assisting staff as needed. Troubleshoot methods and instrumentation
• Provide daily leadership as designated. Assist with the daily operations of staff to include management of workload, providing timely technical assistance to staff and clients, responding to inquiries and complaints, ensuring safety compliance, and minimizing overtime, etc.
• Assist in the development and evaluation of new processes and/or procedures and participate in improving current processes
• Provide administrative assistance to include interviewing and selecting new employees, evaluating employees, documenting staff competencies, and recommending cost containment strategies, etc. Additional tasks that may be assigned include scheduling, purchasing supplies, quality improvement projects, and others as needed