Certified Phlebotomist – Houston VA, Houston TX

Fidelity Partners•Houston, TX

19h•$26•Onsite

About The Position

The Certified Phlebotomist will support the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center's (MEDVAMC) inpatient wards and outpatient clinic. MEDVAMC inpatient units operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week, including weekends and Federal Holidays, and the outpatient draw clinic is open Monday-Friday from 6:00 am – 5:30 pm. Every person who works an 8-hour shift is entitled to a 30-minute lunch break, as well as two 15-minute breaks when time permits.

Requirements

Must have completed Phlebotomy specialty training from an accredited Phlebotomy school/program.
Applicants must have a minimum of two (2) years of experience with basic laboratory and phlebotomy skills.
Have experience with specimen collection, packaging, and shipment to referral laboratories with knowledge of maintaining appropriate records.
Must be Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) certified either by the American Red Cross (ARC)or the American Heart Association (AHA).
Must be a U.S. Citizen.
National Background Check with Inquiries, Fingerprints, and Drug Screen.

Nice To Haves

Copies of all certifications and resumes must be forwarded with your application.

Responsibilities

Performs Phlebotomy duties on an inpatient and outpatient basis.
Assembles equipment such as tourniquet, needles, blood collection devices, gauze, vacuum tubes, alcohol, chloral prep, etc. on work tray, blood collection cart, or work area.
Verifies and correctly identifies patients utilizing two approved patient identifiers prior to drawing blood, per Medical Center Policy, Specimen Collection Policy, and The Joint Commission guidelines, and converses with the patient to allay fear of the procedure.
Draws blood and blood cultures from patients using proper venipuncture techniques and methods. Uses plastic vacuum tubes, a blood collection needle, or a blood collection set (butterfly) to obtain samples.
Applies tourniquet to arm, locates accessible vein, swabs puncture area with disinfectant, and inserts needle into vein to draw blood; withdraws needle, applies treatment to puncture site.
Labels in the presence of the patient, initials, and transports blood collected to the processing area; uses the Trans Logic system to tube specimens to the third-floor laboratory from the outpatient's Blood Lab.
Ensures that a sufficient amount of blood is drawn for each requested test or procedure.
Outpatient specimen collections are not limited to blood collection, but also include different kinds of urine collections and the performance of glucose tolerance testing.
May perform various other technical laboratory procedures such as computer test accessioning, specimen centrifugation, serum separation, etc.
Interprets and clarifies physicians' orders from written requests and hard copies of orders and may input test orders into the computer; uses the Multipurpose Accessioning option, Pre-Accessioning options, Activate Pre-Accession Numbers option, etc.
Rotates to answer telephone requests for verbal test requests, test add-on (s), and test results; utilizes the computer to access the necessary data and communicates this data (results) to physicians, nurses, and other authorized medical personnel as necessary.
Records rejected specimens according to rejection protocols, such as misidentified, unidentified specimens, or specimens with insufficient volume drawn, wrong tube, etc.
Must provide superb customer service and great communication skills.
Contract staff will adhere to the VAMC Customer Service Standards of Behavior Policy.