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Western Pathology Quality Assurance Association (WPQAA) is leveraging a
small revenue stream to initiate a nationwide effort to relieve the
shortage of medical technologists.
Scope of the Problem
Each year, 4,000 newly trained medical technologists are needed to
replace others leaving the workforce and an additional 3,000 are needed
to keep up with the growth in work volume. Fewer than 2,000 medical
technologists, however, graduated in 2004. The graduation rate has edged
up in recent years, but it remains well below historic levels of 3,572
in 1995 and 6,519 in 1977.
Many universities have reacted to the loss of interest in clinical
laboratory careers by pulling the plug on their four-year MT programs.
The number of these programs has declined from nearly 800 in 1970 to 232
in 2004. Nonetheless, as the technologists’ supply tapers off, the
workload increases. In response, many labs have brought in more
automation and hired staff with less training.
Seed Money for Endowments
In this setting, a cadre of highly trained medical technologists is more
important than ever to maintain and improve laboratory medicine. WPQAA
has, therefore, established $10,000 endowments at five schools of
medical technology:
Several other programs are
presently under consideration.
Despite the high level of interest from Medical Technology programs, the
endowments are so small that it can be difficult to persuade big
universities to accept them. Once established, however, they can grow
with money contributed by alumni and other sources. For example, both
the University of Washington and San Jose State University each grew
their endowments from $10,000 to over $25,000 and $20,000 respectively over several years.
[Information for this segment credited to Bowman Cox, author, in an
article he wrote in CAP Today, Oct. 2005]
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