Clinical Lab Assistant - Phlebotomist - Los Alamos, (1723)

Schedule

Monday – Friday 0630–12:00 with a ½-hour lunch; other shifts as needed.

Location

Los Alamos

About the role

The Clinical Lab Assistant / Phlebotomist works with minimal supervision to perform one or more modalities; compensation scales with the number of modalities performed. Candidates without prior experience may enter a paid apprenticeship track.

Essential Functions

• Perform duties professionally and courteously.
• Maintain supplies and inventory for departmental functions.
• Observe students and/or new staff as needed.
• Apply basic problem-solving to ensure exceptional customer and patient care.
• Handle hospital communication duties, including on-call responsibilities during scheduled hours via cell phone.
• Demonstrate effective telephone and verbal communication skills.
• Exercise professional judgment with clients, patients, and coworkers.
• Perform clerical functions (e.g., documenting call-ins) in the absence of a supervisor.
• Maintain confidentiality of personal and confidential information.
• Participate in on-call coverage to meet service levels; provide holiday, evening, and weekend coverage as required.
• Use basic PC skills.

Minimum Qualifications

• High-school diploma or equivalent.
• Preferred: PBT (ASCP) or equivalent certification; completion of a relevant Clinical Lab Assistant or comparable program.
• Immunization requirements:
  • Prove immunity to Hepatitis B, or be immunized, or sign a waiver refusing immunization.
  • Provide documentation of a PPD test conducted within 90 days prior to hire, or complete a PPD test through TriCore.
  • In departments/locations with direct patient contact: prove immunity or be eligible to receive rubella, rubeola, and varicella immunizations.
• Valid driver’s license and good driving record; must be insurable by the lab’s insurance carrier.
• Eligible to work in a healthcare facility under the New Mexico Caregivers Criminal History Screening Act or other applicable law.

Modalities

• Check-in and Order Entry/Reconciliation (Clinical, Anatomic, Research, Referral Testing): identify patients in the system, reconcile electronic orders, manual entry, insurance/payment handling.
• General Phlebotomy (ages 10+): vacutainer, butterfly, and syringe collections.
• Special Collections and/or external shipping certification (arterial blood gas, pediatric and infant draws, sweat collection, breath collections, occupational health/drug screens, MRSA and COVID collections, therapeutic phlebotomies).
• Assist with provider-performed procedures (FNA, bone marrow, EBUS, bronchial lavage).
• Specimen Processing: receipt, sorting, delivery/loading, decanting, retrieval for send-out testing, surgical sample triage, storage and disposal.
• Non-conformity investigation/Problem Resolution (e.g., Problem Desk, TLC, NCE responses, client service) with proper documentation.
• Lab Equipment Maintenance/Support (superuser): chemical and biohazard waste management for non-testing instrumentation (cryostats, stain line).
• Sample Testing (waived to moderate): instrument maintenance, biohazard disposal, QC, result review, technical problem resolution.
• Training and competency assessments for modalities; may include N95 fit testing.
• Department-specific skilled technical assistance:
  • BB-Product prep: irradiating units, thawing cryoprecipitate and plasma, splitting plasma and platelets.
  • Infectious Disease: planting patient specimens, tissue and bone processing (grinding, cutting), plate inoculation, anaerobic/aerobic incubation requirements.
  • Genetics and Cytometry: nucleic acid extraction, cell culture and harvesting, renal transplant kit oversight, patient testing scheduling and monitoring.
  • Histology and Cytology: cytology specimen processing, slide preparation and staining, histology specimen grossing and processing for each tissue type.
  • TRI Honest Broker: AP/HP case organization, slide distribution, FFPE block and slide filing, material retrieval, case management.
  • Client material return, unit allocation and issue (cryoprecipitate, plasma, platelets, bone, tissue), inventory management (ordering, receiving, par-level monitoring, end-of-month reconciliations, blood supply, reagents, supplies, TriBuy training and competency).