Lab Support Specialist II

Saratoga Hospital•Saratoga Springs, NY

52d•$18 - $28

About The Position

We're looking for a dedicated Lab Support Specialist II to join our team and help us continue delivering the level of care our patients and families deserve. In this role, you'll be a vital part of our clinical team, ensuring excellent service, collaboration, and patient outcomes in a fast-paced healthcare environment. In this role, you will be responsible for providing laboratory registration, preregistration, scheduling, requisition maintenance as well as reference laboratory billing. The Lab Support Specialist II will assist in processing blood, cultures, and urine specimens, label samples, sort and set up batches of specimens, as well as perform send out operations. You will also be responsible for the collection of blood samples for laboratory testing in hospital, emergency room, and outpatient settings.

Requirements

High School graduate or equivalent.
Six months phlebotomy experience or equivalent required.
A Bachelors of Science in related field can be considered in lieu of patient care experience.
Valid New York State driver's license required.
Must be at least 21 years of age and approved to drive Saratoga Hospital vehicles for shifts requiring travel for offsite specimen collection.
Strong communication and teamwork skills
Commitment to providing patient-first, high-quality service
Comfort working in a fast-paced, collaborative environment

Responsibilities

Delegates and oversees day to day activities in the absence of the department leader, related to laboratory support services maintaining effective operations.
Maintains inventory control/documentation, including weekly ordering, as well as preventing shortages, overstocked items and expired materials.
Registers patient scripts collecting demographic and insurance information to ensure proper billing to all parties, as well as inputs acceptable and accurate diagnosis codes for all registrations.
Coordinates and schedules phlebotomy services for all outpatient location, including homedraw services using the hospital computer system.
Performs requisition functions including obtaining scanned requisitions, accurately ordering laboratory tests in the Meditech system, as well as investigating esoteric test orders to determine proper test and specimen requirements, making certain that laboratory test orders are compliant with regulatory agency requirements.
Serves as the primary laboratory contact staff communicating with patients, physician offices, floor staff, as well as reference laboratories through telephone, fax and electronic routes following hospital policies pertaining to HIPAA compliance.
Recognizes specific patient requirements relating to choice of appropriate collection equipment, verbal and non-verbal communications. Assesses patient condition associated with adverse reactions to specimen collections, in addition to determining when these reactions meet the requirements for a medical emergency, and what action to take.
Obtain blood specimens by performing venipuncture, fingersticks, and heel sticks maintaining order of draw, as well as knowledge of specimen requirements, ensuring optimal results for diagnostic decisions.
Receive, sort, label and process specimens including mixing, centrifuging, aliquotting, incubating maintaining safe specimen handling requirements, as well as distinguishing which tests require whole blood, serum or plasma while preserving specimen storage requirements. Staff recognize problems associated with specimen integrity, and demonstrate proper notification for rejected specimens.
Identify diagnostic tests performed and process laboratory charges.
Responsible for performing chain of custody urine and blood collections, as well as breath alcohol testing according to department of transportation guidelines.
Performs selected waived testing and other technical functions as allowed by New York State Department of Health and College of American Pathologists regulations.
Coordinates with other members of the patient access teams to promote an optimal patient experience during specimen collection.
Meet benchmarks set by laboratory leadership to ensure optimal laboratory support functions, in addition to organizational initiatives related to meeting state and federal established benchmarks. Provides training as well as guidance across the organization for duties related to laboratory support.
Performs, and documents safety inspections, citing dangerous areas/procedures and recommending corrective procedures, as well as maintaining equipment safety.
Maintains enhanced physician practice, patient and staff relations, and service recovery, creating an environment conducive to maximizing internal and external customer satisfaction.
Deliver compassionate, patient-centered care in alignment with Saratoga Hospital values
Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to support health, healing, and service excellence
Perform [clinical or administrative] responsibilities with a focus on safety, quality, and efficiency
Use hospital systems and tools to document care and support operations
Continuously seek opportunities to improve processes and support patient and staff satisfaction
Serve as a positive, professional representative of our hospital and community