Help with job description

[Gerald]

Currently our hospital lab departments, except the blood bank, have a "Lead Tech" in charge. The blood bank is under a "Blood Bank Specialist". For the 19 years i have worked here the "BB Specialist" has been 1 pay grade above the "Lead Tech". HR has now made the lead tech the same paygrade. I am trying to get them to raise the "BB Specialist" paygrade 1 level because I feel that the additional responsibilities and issues that I have to handle every day justifys this. I have to write a new job description to start this process.

Does anyone else have a situation similar to this? If so would you be willing to share job descriptions of both "Lead tech" and "BB Specialist"? I'm having a hard time getting this down on paper.

[L106]

I assume that the "Blood Bank Specialist" and the "lead techs" of other sections of your Laboratory, for all practical purposes, perform the same functions. (Supervising, training, and evaluating staff & students, selecting equipment, purchasing reagents & supplies, developing policies & procedures, resolving difficult testing and equipment problems, reviewing QC, etc.) Is there really something "special" involved with the Blood Bank position?

I imagine that many of us, at one time or another, have thought that Blood Bank is "more important" or "more critical", and that seems obvious by the fact that a single error in Blood Bank could cause immediate, serious detriment or death to a patient. However, a simple decimal point error in Chemistry could result in similar consequences. Missing a positive blood culture could also. And when I think of the vast array of test procedures, equipment, supply orders and budget involved with the Chemistry section, I sometimes feel like managing the Blood Bank is actually easier than some of the other sections.

But back to your job description project: Can you list the additional responsibilities, issues, and special duties that are involved with the Blood Bank position? Are they requiring that the person in charge of Blood Bank has more education, specialist certification, or experience than the lead tech of the other sections? Is "On Call" duty required of the BB positiion but not the other lead techs? If many of these answers are "YES" and you can document them in your job description, you may be able to convince Human Resources to rethink the job classification and paygrade.