According to the latest Wage & Vacancy survey by the American Society for Clinical Pathology, half of all laboratories in the United States have difficulty hiring laboratory personnel.
The demand is being fueled by the increase in overall patients - Baby Boomers in particular - who need laboratory services, and the retiring of the lab workforce - with the average worker age at 50.
Numerous efforts are underway to remedy the problem, including help from the federal stimulus package, but they face an uphill battle, says Kathy Cilia, director of marketing for the American Medical Technologists.
According to U.S. Dept. of Labor Statistics, there were 319,000 employees in the medical technology (MT) field in 2006. Projected employment shoots up to 362,000 for 2016, but a number of factors are keeping supply from meeting with demand.
The number of MT schools is closing because of funding cuts, a lack of available clinical sites to provide training, and low professional visibility, said Cilia.
MT programs and schools are typically attached to a hospital or university. In 1983, there were 638 programs approved by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. In 2007, that number dropped to 222. Unfortunately, administrators are not looking to the future and the demand for services, Cilia said.
"MT programs are a logical place to cut," she lamented.
Another problem is that while the level of education for medical technologists is the same as nurses, MTs are typically not paid as much and there is little opportunity to advance, Cilia said.
The laboratory community has come together to address the problem through efforts such as the Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce and Labs Are Vital. Among the initiatives are attempts to keep programs open, the preparation of toolkits for administrators to justify funding programs, promotion of the profession to students in middle and high schools, and raising awareness of the workforce shortage and barriers in key areas such as workforce information centers.
"There has been more activity in the last couple of years," said Cilia, but she added that efforts need to be increased in order to make a difference.