MUSCP - Pathology Assistant - Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Medical University of South Carolina•Charleston, SC

About The Position

Reporting directly to the Section Director of Surgical Pathology, the Pathology Assistant processes and grosses biopsy and excision specimens under the oversight of a pathologist and/or certified Pathologist’s Assistant, and performs quality control and quality assurance tests. This is not a Pathologists’ Assistant (PA) position, which requires formal PA certification. The role supports surgical pathology specimen preparation, documentation, quality processes, discrepancy resolution, and audit responses. The position is scheduled for 40 hours per week.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
6–8 years of work experience.
State licensure and/or professional certification requirements depend on the position.

Responsibilities

Performs required quality control and quality assurance tests, maintains documentation and current logs, and reports test-quality or patient- or employee-safety concerns to a Supervisor or Safety Officer.
Preserves and processes gross specimens, sets up surgical specimen documentation, organizes slides and data, generates tables, and assists with other requests.
Describes gross anatomic features of processing specimens, sections specimens according to specific protocols, and submits the correct portions for histologic preparation.
Logs surgical pathology specimens in the tissue laboratory, assigns accession numbers, checks tissue-examination forms and specimens for completeness and accuracy, and labels specimen cassettes according to specimen requirements.
Performs accurate gross description and dissection of surgical specimens according to guidelines established by the Anatomic Pathology Medical Director for a Gross Technician.
Prioritizes and triages specimens; handles and disposes of specimens and chemical waste according to the laboratory procedural manual; and ensures compliance with regulatory agencies.
Aids in discrepancy resolution.
Photomicrographs areas of interest for inclusion in final reports and performs quality control during image capture.
Helps pathologists, adjunct pathologists, and remote pathologists respond to quality assurance audits.
Assists with identifying and researching discrepancy cases to determine the origin of variance.