PHOENIX — Shortages of doctors, nurses and pharmacists have been well-publicized, but now hospital administrators are also worried about the availability of enough people to do the lab work needed to treat patients effectively.
Medical technologists are crucial since most medical decisions made in hospitals or doctors' offices are based on lab results, said Joyce Santis, chief operating officer for Sonora Quest Laboratories, the state's largest commercial lab.
But they are getting harder to find. For one thing, Santis said, medical technology is not a well-known profession, which is part of the problem.
She said patients in hospitals tend to have direct contact with nurses, physicians and phlebotomists who draw blood at the bedside, and they don't know much about the people who analyze that blood.
Another concern is jobs may be phased out because of automation.
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Some places, such as Laboratory Sciences of Arizona, are considering recruiting technologists from overseas, the same strategy once frequently used to hire nurses.
Laboratory Sciences of Arizona, a subsidiary of Banner Health, hires for all of Banner's Arizona hospitals and for Sonora Quest Laboratories.
Medical technologists, who typically have bachelor's degrees, can perform more than 10,000 lab tests ranging from looking for the bacteria that causes strep throat to making sure blood samples match in critical transfusions.
Arizona State University graduates as many as 16 students a year in its program, and every graduate has multiple job offers, said Diana Mass, head of the school's medical-technologist training program.
ASU's is the only program in the state of its type. Almost two years ago, the University of Arizona decided to close its program, saying it was too costly to run.
Since 1970, the number of programs offering medical technology courses has dropped 70 percent, according to the accrediting agency for clinical-lab programs.
Industry analysts say the major reason for the closures is money. It can cost as much as $20,000 to train a medical technologist, with much of the cost generated by having labs on campus.
Fewer programs mean fewer replacements for the aging med-tech work force. The average age of a med tech is 48. Up to 40 percent of the current work force will be eligible for retirement by 2010, according to industry statistics.
