Clinical Lab Assistant - Phlebotomist/ Rust Hospital, (1656)

Schedule

Saturday–Sunday 08:30–19:00 with weekends, rotating holidays, on-calls, and other shifts as needed.

Location

Rust Hospital

About the role

The Clinical Lab Assistant Phlebotomist works independently with minimal supervision and performs one or more identified modalities. Compensation scales with the number of modalities performed; candidates without experience may enter a paid apprenticeship track. Regular in-person attendance during scheduled hours is essential.

Essential Functions

• Perform duties in a professional and courteous manner.
• Maintain supplies and inventory necessary for departmental functions.
• Observe students and/or new staff as needed.
• Exhibit basic problem-solving skills to ensure exceptional customer and patient care.
• Handle hospital communication duties, including on-call responsibilities during scheduled hours (cell phone required).
• Demonstrate effective telephone and verbal communication skills.
• Apply professional judgment when dealing with clients, patients, and coworkers.
• Perform clerical functions such as documenting critical communications (e.g., call-ins) in the absence of a supervisor.
• Maintain confidentiality of personal and confidential information.
• Participate in on-call coverage to meet service levels and cover holidays, evenings, and weekends as required.
• Possess basic PC skills.

Modalities

• Check-in and Order Entry/Reconciliation (Clinical, Anatomic, Research, Referral Testing), including patient identification, electronic order reconciliation, manual entry, and insurance/payment handling.
• General Phlebotomy (ages 10 and above) using 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 screen collections, MRSA and COVID collections, therapeutic phlebotomies).
• Assisting 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 and problem resolution (e.g., Problem Desk, TLC, NCE responses) with proper documentation.
• Lab Equipment Maintenance and/or support (superuser), including chemical and biohazard waste management for non-testing instrumentation (cryostats and stainline).
• Sample Testing (waived to moderate), including instrument maintenance, biohazard disposal, QC, result review, and resolution of technical specimen problems.
• Training and/or assisting in competency assessments for modalities and students, including initial training documentation.
• Additional department-specific skilled technical assistance tasks such as BB-Product prep (irradiating units, thawing cryo and plasma, splitting plasma and platelets), Infectious Disease specimen processing (tissue and bone processing, plate inoculation, anaerobic/aerobic incubation), Genetics and Cytometry (nucleic acid extraction, cell culture, renal transplant kit oversight), Histology and Cytology (cytology specimen processing, slide preparation and staining, histology specimen processing including bone marrow grossing).
• TRI Honest Broker duties including organization of AP/HP cases, slide distribution, FFPE block and slide filing, material retrieval, case management (ordering, billing, report upload), client material return, unit allocation and issue (cryo, plasma, platelet, bone, tissue), and inventory management (ordering, receiving, monitoring par levels, end-of-month reconciliations).

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 not more than 90 days prior to hire, or have a PPD test conducted through TriCore.
  • In departments/locations with direct patient contact: prove immunity or be eligible to receive rubella, rubeola, and varicella immunization.
• Valid driver’s license and good driving record; must be insurable by lab insurance carrier as required by location.
• Eligible to work in a healthcare facility as provided by the New Mexico Caregivers Criminal History Screening Act or other applicable law.

Minimum Experience

Candidates with no training or experience may be considered for an apprenticeship. Selected candidates will be placed into CLA Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, or Level 4 based on the number of modalities completed on a regular basis. Assigned modalities are determined by department leadership.