Clinical Laboratory Scientist - Technical Specialist, Hematology/Coagulation/Infusion Lab

About the role

The incumbent serves as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) Technical Specialist within the Hematology/Coagulation section of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, and the Infusion Lab (Kent VA - occasional travel required) performing key duties in the clinical laboratory.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of concepts, principles, methodology of medical laboratory technology, regulatory and accrediting agency requirements, medicolegal requirements, and pertinent statistics sufficient to perform complex diagnostic tests.
• Demonstrates knowledge of instructional techniques to instruct newly hired clinical laboratory scientists, clinical pathology residents, and students in proper performance of tests and applications of laboratory procedures.
• Demonstrates knowledge of one or more advanced clinical laboratory functions, in this case hematology/coagulation/chemistry.
• Demonstrates skill to apply new scientific/technical developments to develop procedures for new tests and modify existing procedures and methods to resolve problems relative to complex and difficult situations.
• Demonstrates ability to provide guidance and technical direction to accomplish the work of a clinical laboratory.
• Demonstrates the ability to provide guidance and technical direction to accomplish the work of the hematology/coagulation section and the offsite infusion lab.
• Evaluates the suitability of each specimen for analysis, requesting a new specimen if determined to be unusable. Prepares specimen for analysis according to established procedures. Follows established procedure for handling of mislabeled, unlabeled, or unsuitable specimens.
• Ensures acceptable orders have been placed by a provider and accurately accesses and receives specimens, maintaining correct patient identification throughout each phase of processing, analysis, and resulting.
• Selects, performs, evaluates, and monitors the performance of test procedures using manual and/or automated techniques in accordance with established protocols. Recognizes and reacts to indicators of malfunction; locates and implements corrective action.
• Conducts quality control procedures on instrumentation, equipment, reagents, and products and maintains proper records for quality control reports. Performs initial quality control of all incoming reagents and supplies as required.
• Performs initial testing on all reagents received in the department before reagents are put into use. This includes lot-to-lot testing and/or parallel testing that is then presented to the supervisor or section director to review/approve before reagents or supplies are put into use.
• Calibrates, standardizes, adjusts, and maintains instruments. This includes verifying correct instrument operation using established procedures and quality control checks and monitoring. Identifies the cause of common problems and makes simple repairs. Ensures maintenance, calibrations, and quality control are completed as scheduled and within the required timeframes.
• Evaluates the validity of the data in relation to the test system and accepted assay procedures. Correlates quantitative data with patient data (e.g., history, medications) as necessary to verify results.
• Reviews and investigates delta checks, flags, alerts, etc. and performs additional testing to clarify or confirm abnormal patient results. Recognizes abnormal results that require immediate attention by the physician and reports them directly and follows the proper laboratory and medical center policies.
• Responsible for the generation of laboratory results from the work area into the laboratory computer system and for the editing and verification of results recorded into the computer system.
• May be required to travel to the Kent VA Infusion Lab to perform laboratory testing.

Requirements

Open to current permanent Department of Veterans Affairs employees, current permanent Federal employees of other agencies and all US Citizens.

Qualifications

• Education. A bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited college or university in medical laboratory science, medical technology, clinical laboratory science or in a related science (e.g., laboratory sciences such as chemistry, biochemistry, biology, microbiology, immunology, etc.).
• Certification. Candidates must meet one of the certification options below:
• Generalist certification as an MLS given by ASCP BOC or AMT.
• Generalist certification as an MT given by ASCP BOR or AMT.
• Categorical certification or Specialist certification by ASCP or AMT.

Benefits

Competitive salary and regular salary increases. Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year). Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)