Diverse group of laboratory and healthcare association leaders join forces to
strengthen the workforce that underpins healthcare system
The medical and public health laboratory workforce that underpins the U.S. healthcare system is currently experiencing a personnel shortage. A significant number of laboratory professionals—experts at performing patient laboratory testing—have left the workforce due to retirement, others because of the burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of this, many accredited training programs have closed. As a result, the number of qualified laboratory professionals has rapidly declined, and this has the potential to disrupt the delivery of high-quality patient care. To address this trend, the Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce Coalition—a coalition of more than 20 national and regional laboratory, pathology, and other healthcare associations—has formed to work toward building a robust, more diverse medical laboratory workforce.
Medical and public health laboratory professionals are critical to quality patient care, with many, if not most, medical diagnoses dependent on their work. Unfortunately, these essential medical professionals are in short supply. With vacancy rates exceeding seven percent (up to 13.1 percent) for most categories of laboratory personnel, and anticipated retirement rates exceeding 20 percent within the next five years, the laboratory workforce will require significant corrective intervention to reverse this situation.
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The newly established Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce Coalition will work to draw attention to laboratory testing occupations and encourage individuals to consider careers in laboratory medicine, according to Bianca Frogner, PhD, Director of the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies (UW CHWS). “Laboratory professionals serve critical roles in our nation’s health systems as highlighted during this pandemic. These can be excellent career opportunities, but we need to ensure these opportunities are known and accessible for all individuals, and that we support career progression to ensure diversity across the skill spectrum,” Dr. Frogner says.
The UW CHWS recently conducted a study examining the challenges and opportunities to build up the workforce. "The number of individuals entering the medical laboratory workforce is falling short of current and projected future needs,” says Dr. Frogner. “With impact of the pandemic on increasing work demands while burning out workers, laboratories across the United States are reporting workforce shortages, which poses a threat to quality care. Now is the time for collective attention of the entire laboratory and medical field."
This new workforce coalition will work to increase visibility of the laboratory occupations, such as by exposing students from elementary school through college levels to the laboratory careers; expand and improve workforce recruitment, development, and retention efforts; and increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the laboratory workforce.
As the Coalition embarks on this new task, we welcome those interested in joining the effort to address laboratory personnel shortages. Express your support to the laboratory and follow our progress as we tackle this problem. For more information and a list of the groups involved in this new coalition, visit
https://www.mphlcoalition.org/
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1. The American Society for Clinical Pathology 2020 Vacancy Survey of Medical Laboratories in the United States, Edna Garcia, MPH, Iman Kundu, MPH, Melissa Kelly, PhD, Ryan Soles, MS. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, Volume 157, Issue 6, June 2022, Pages 874–889, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcp/aqab197.
ASCP Media Contact: Susan Montgomery
Email: susan.montgomery@ascp.org
