[Histonet] Pathology Ladder System

Wed Aug 10 11:17:26 CDT 2016

Stephen,
This question is being asked all over the country.  Your suggestion of having a clear cut career ladder is good.  Add to that the opportunity to cross train in other areas such as POCT testing, molecular, and digital imaging.  Today's techs want opportunities to advance and most of them don't mind learning new things, they just want to be compensated for that. New techs don't mind moving around some to get that dream job, but they need a definite track to do so. 
Mentoring in other areas is good as well.  Allow them the chance to participate in other administrative areas so that they can see what is out there. Rotate these spots so that everyone can get a chance if they want.  I see you are the safety person, send someone else to your meeting next time.  NSH is also good for investigating and networking.  
We actually just discussed this with our department earlier this summer, histotechs want a career ladder to see what is out there.  They don't want to wait 10 years to get a good position, so they job hop.

Sincerely,

Toysha N. Mayer, D.H.Sc., MBA, HT (ASCP)
Instructor/Education Coordinator
Program in Histotechnology
School of Health Professions
UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
713.563-3481
The information contained in the e-mail message may be privileged, confidential, and/or protected from disclosure. This e-mail message may contain protected health information (PHI); dissemination of PHI should comply with applicable federal and state laws. If you are not the intended recipient, or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, any further review, disclosure, use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message or any attachment (or the information contained therein) is strictly prohibited. If you think that you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete all references to it and its contents from your systems.

-----Original Message-----

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2016 11:19:34 +0000
From: <Stephen.Clark1 at hcahealthcare.com>
To: <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Subject: [Histonet] Pathology Ladder System
Message-ID:
	<E7D2495FF536DC43A960D899ED790D6B3A8CAB16 at FWDCWPMSGHCMD4A.hca.corpad.net>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Good morning everyone.  I had a meeting recently with hospital administration where I was asked what leadership could do to retain and keep quality staff.  Besides the obvious, pay increase's, I suggested a ladder type progression system for all lab staff, similar to what some hospitals offer nursing staff.  My question to this group is, if any of you are using such a system would you mind sharing it with me?

Thanks,

Stephen Clark  HT, BS, DESSO
Pathology Dept. Supervisor
Laboratory Safety Officer
Grand Strand Medical Center
809 82nd Parkway
Myrtle Beach, SC 29579
Desk: 843-692-1459
Lab: 843-692-1486
Fax: 843-449-6213

------------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2016 16:10:27 +0000
From: "Morken, Timothy" <Timothy.Morken at ucsf.edu>
To: Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Pathology Ladder System
Message-ID:
	<761E2B5697F795489C8710BCC72141FF6FD7B06C at ex07.net.ucsf.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Our career ladder at UCSF

HLT 1 thru 4 (Hospital Laboratory Technician) for non-histology positions. HLT-1 is entry level, could be out of high school. To move up requires more education. HLT-2 AA to BA/BA, HLT-3, -4, BA/BS used as accessioners, basic lab techs in grossing and cytology, running stainers, changing tissue processors in histology, etc. HLT-1,-2 are bench techs. HLT-3 is a Senior tech, HLT-4 is a Lead tech. HLT-3 and -4 can be trained for grossing. They can actually work their way thru to minor grossing with the right qualifications. If trained for histotechnology or more advanced grossing ie, PA-level) we promote them to the Histotechnologist series.

HT 1 thru 4 (Histotechnologist). Traditional histology lab techs as well as on-the-job trained Pathologist's Assistants (HT-3,-4 only). HT-1,2 are the basic bench techs, HT-3, is Senior tech, HT-4 is Lead tech. Only HT-4 and Supervisor requires ASCP certification for histology work (not grossing work), but  is "preferred" at the other levels. So far all our histotechs are ASCP certified HT or HTL.  None of the OJT PA's are certified (though they could work for it if they desired). We do have an advantage of a large research population to draw techs from so all come to us with good educational background and have learned some histology in a research lab. 

These are all union positions and each classification (i.e HT-1 or HT-2) has 12 annual steps (controlled by the union, not administration) before maxing out in pay. At that point they reach a ceiling and can only move up by going to the next up classification. We usually require 5 years in one step  before reclassifying unless the person is exceptional. As a manager I can only reclassify; I cannot move someone up a step as a reward for good work.

This works out pretty well for advancement but we have a fairly large organization - 12 histotechs and 2 HLT in the histo lab; 4 HLT in cyto lab; 4 certifed PA's; 4 OJT PA's plus 5 HLT accessioners - moving up or to other positions within the department is possible.  Several of our accessioners have moved up to Histotech positions, and one OJT PA went to PA school and came back to work for us. Another HLT accessioner is applying to PA school.

We also now hire only certified PA's, and try  to hire program-trained PA's. the competition for that is tough and for recent positions we have essentially opened it to any certified PA.

Cyto uses the HLT series for lab work and has another Cytotechnologist series for cytotechs, same idea of level 1-4. 

At the top of each lab is the supervisor in each discipline, one for cytology, histology, grossing and administration.

The usual problem in Histo labs is that people stay a long time and so block others from moving up, so even if a career ladder is in place advancement is difficult. Unless the department expands the opportunities to advance are limited in many labs. 

I histology we have had quite a lot of turnover the last 5 years because we had a 4 histotechs retire within a couple years so some advanced and some new techs came in. We also opened a couple new jobs. So we now have a fairly young lab with a lot of very good techs.

Tim Morken
Pathology Site Manager, Parnassus
Supervisor, Electron Microscopy/Neuromuscular Special Studies Department of Pathology UC San Francisco Medical Center

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve via Histonet [mailto:histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2016 4:20 AM
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Pathology Ladder System

Good morning everyone.  I had a meeting recently with hospital administration where I was asked what leadership could do to retain and keep quality staff.  Besides the obvious, pay increase's, I suggested a ladder type progression system for all lab staff, similar to what some hospitals offer nursing staff.  My question to this group is, if any of you are using such a system would you mind sharing it with me?

Thanks,

Stephen Clark  HT, BS, DESSO
Pathology Dept. Supervisor
Laboratory Safety Officer
Grand Strand Medical Center
809 82nd Parkway
Myrtle Beach, SC 29579
Desk: 843-692-1459
Lab: 843-692-1486
Fax: 843-449-6213

_______________________________________________
Histonet mailing list
Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet

------------------------------

Subject: Digest Footer

_______________________________________________
Histonet mailing list
Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet

------------------------------

End of Histonet Digest, Vol 153, Issue 8
****************************************
The information contained in this e-mail message may be privileged, confidential, and/or protected from disclosure. This e-mail message may contain protected health information (PHI); dissemination of PHI should comply with applicable federal and state laws. If you are not the intended recipient, or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, any further review, disclosure, use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message or any attachment (or the information contained therein) is strictly prohibited. If you think that you have received this e-mail message in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete all references to it and its contents from your systems.