Yes! Each department has their own Lead Technologist here. Blood Bank, Microbiology, Chemistry, Hematology/Coagulation/Urinalysis, Histology and Cytology. Each "Boss" for each department reports to our laboratory manager when necessary.

But who does your lab manager then report to?

Thanks!

But who does your lab manager then report to?

Thanks!

Many people...but first to the Blood Bank Medical director(Pathologist). Next, to the various levels of administration if need be..

Unfortunately, Laboratory Science has become a bit like politics....(I won't elaborate on this statement..I am guessing everyone understands it??)

I have recently learnt (and stil am!) how very important it is to have a working management escalation/ communication policy in place, where everybody signs up to their responsibilities, and folk can then be held accountable if they don't act on information given to them, about any problems in the lab that can't be sorted due to lack of resources.

Hi Rashmi, The policy you describe above is an excellent approach and shows your QUALITY thinking

Steve

We have a somewhat parallel system of management here. As with other US facilities that have reported, we have section managers who are responsible for the individual sections of the laboratory. These section heads report to a lab director (Masters level education.Most often in my experience the lab director comes out of chemistry, but that is not s requirement. I think that happens because chemistry is usually a much larger department, so that manager will have had more experience managing more people). The lab director reports to a hospital administrator, who reports to a VP, who reports to the president, etc. This represents the hiring, firing, evaluation responsibility chain. We also have a pathology group (physicians) who are contrracted by the hospital. Some hospitals actually employ their pathologists, so this could differ. The pathologists provide the medical guidance and oversight. My blood bank medical director is board certified in transfusion medicine, so I am very fortunate. Often the pathologist in charge of blood bank does not have the expertise to help out the blood bank manager. My pathologist is recognized as the "responsible head" of blood bank in FDA terms, which means that any reports of fatalities or errors to the government are her responsibility.

Several years ago, we had a conflict between the management chain of command and the medical chain of command because there was a fatality that we (my medical director and I) thought could have been due to transfusion and we reported it to FDA. The hospital management was very unhappy that this was done without consulting them. That was the original line when I got called on the carpet. They later modified that to "they should have been informed" when they were presented with the FDA guidance that states that the responsible head has to report and hospital mangement decided that they didn't want to take over the responsible head position.

OK, that may have been more information than you were looking for...

Interesting thread...

I think the thing to keep in mind is that everyone reports to someone else, on and up the food chain. In my hospital, we are set up much as adiescast - eventually the Blood Bank reports through the Dept of Lab Medicine through Anatomic Pathology through Clinical Services including Nursing and thence to the CEO. Oh, and Financial Services and IT also have thier say in how we operate!

And you are right in that no one wants to be on the hot seat when the FDA is around.

I'd like to think we all bring something special to the table, and the ultimate goal is patient care. We have worked hard to stop being insulted and learned to collaborate. Yes, it is not always easy to listen to another point of view, but sometimes we are enlightened by another.

Interesting thread...

I think the thing to keep in mind is that everyone reports to someone else, on and up the food chain. In my hospital, we are set up much as adiescast - eventually the Blood Bank reports through the Dept of Lab Medicine through Anatomic Pathology through Clinical Services including Nursing and thence to the CEO. Oh, and Financial Services and IT also have thier say in how we operate!

And you are right in that no one wants to be on the hot seat when the FDA is around.

I'd like to think we all bring something special to the table, and the ultimate goal is patient care. We have worked hard to stop being insulted and learned to collaborate. Yes, it is not always easy to listen to another point of view, but sometimes we are enlightened by another.

Yes, I agree with you Kate that everyone reports to someone else, and from a Managerial point if view, I think that this is right.

What worries me, and I think a lot of others working in Blood Transfusion Laboratories in many hospitals in the UK, including some very big teaching hospitals, is that the person running the Blood Bank is not only managerially subordinate to the person running Haematology, but is also often subordinate to them on a technical level. As I said in an earlier post, herein lies the problem, because some of these people, with very little knowledge of blood transfusion (and that often learned many, many years previously) do tend to interfere and throw their weight around in the Blood Transfusion Laboratory itself, when the person in charge of this Laboratory knows a great deal more about the subject, and is usually very much more up to date with their knowledge.

:(:(

I'd like to think we all bring something special to the table, and the ultimate goal is patient care. We have worked hard to stop being insulted and learned to collaborate. Yes, it is not always easy to listen to another point of view, but sometimes we are enlightened by another.

VERY well said Kate.

Yes, we all bring different knowledge/experience "to the table", and it is all valuable. Valuable beyond a book in some cases. I always listen to what other Technologists suggest. I will check it out in a "book" of some sort before trying it...but the key (I think) is to be open-minded and listen.

ONCE AGAIN, VERY WELL SAID!!!

Yes, I agree with you Kate that everyone reports to someone else, and from a Managerial point if view, I think that this is right.

What worries me, and I think a lot of others working in Blood Transfusion Laboratories in many hospitals in the UK, including some very big teaching hospitals, is that the person running the Blood Bank is not only managerially subordinate to the person running Haematology, but is also often subordinate to them on a technical level. As I said in an earlier post, herein lies the problem, because some of these people, with very little knowledge of blood transfusion (and that often learned many, many years previously) do tend to interfere and throw their weight around in the Blood Transfusion Laboratory itself, when the person in charge of this Laboratory knows a great deal more about the subject, and is usually very much more up to date with their knowledge.

:(:(

The situation you describe still bothers me!! It is not typically like that in the US. As a matter of fact, I bet there would be a "revolution" of some sort from the blood bankers if this ever happened.

Yes, I agree with you Kate that everyone reports to someone else, and from a Managerial point if view, I think that this is right.

What worries me, and I think a lot of others working in Blood Transfusion Laboratories in many hospitals in the UK, including some very big teaching hospitals, is that the person running the Blood Bank is not only managerially subordinate to the person running Haematology, but is also often subordinate to them on a technical level. As I said in an earlier post, herein lies the problem, because some of these people, with very little knowledge of blood transfusion (and that often learned many, many years previously) do tend to interfere and throw their weight around in the Blood Transfusion Laboratory itself, when the person in charge of this Laboratory knows a great deal more about the subject, and is usually very much more up to date with their knowledge.

:(:(

Well said Malcolm!!, and what is even worse is when you have to justify everything you do to this person and they still disagree with you or try to 'bend' any interpretation of regulations and standards that you show them!!!!!

Malcolm describes the situation very accurately. I'm really interested in UK labs only.

Hi Bill,

It is very useful though to get a feel for how staff in other countries are structured. I will put a poll on in the UK forum in next of days. Can you think of specific questions to ask, about 2-4 would be good, and let me know.

It would be nice to believe that there are a sufficient number of UK registered colleagues that read BBT regularly to justify a sensible poll. However, I would like to be proved wrong!!!

Steve

:)