Someone earlier mentioned the poor salaries, lousy working conditions, etc. of the beleaguered hospital histotech. Histotechs and histology labs have for all time been the proverbial "red-headed step child" of most hospitals. In the last 30 years I've worked in leaky, dark, basement histo labs away from the clinical labs, a histo lab set up near surgery, histo labs set up inside the morgue, OFF SITE histo labs miles from the hospital (clinical lab needed more space - so they moved us into an old factory space they rented.
I visited a hospital last week where I used to work, and maintain a good relationship with the pathologists. The hospital has just undergone a multi-million dollar renovation - bed capacity has tripled, surgical suites went from 12 to 24. The ER size doubled, and is now a Trauma Center. NOT ONE CENT OR MICRON OF SPACE was allotted for pathology, OR the clinical lab. What are these administrators thinking? You double and triple the capacity of bodies you can treat, but neglect the hidden services which those bodies critically need! No one ever sees the pathology lab - why bother to spend money on it???
Jacqueline M. O'Connor HT(ASCP)
Abbott Laboratories
Global Pharmaceutical Research and Development
Discovery Chemotheraputics
847.938.4919
Fax 847.938.3266