Wait for interviewer to ask first question…
Lab Manager Response 1: Pretty low. We don’t have any limits on people overlapping their vacation time. This often results in two or more people scheduling vacation at the same time. When this happens there is a huge burden on the remaining staff. I know some folks will take a sick day or schedule their vacation day when they know someone else is on vacation because they know the workload will be higher that day. It’s a vicious cycle that results in us routinely being very short-staffed. One day last month we only had one phlebotomist show up for day shift…
Wait for interviewer to ask second question…
Lab Manager Response 2: Look, I’ll be honest. I’m not a people person. I was never meant to be a manager and I have no training to do this job. There are some on my staff that have been around much longer than I have and are stuck in their ways. Then there’s the union, so there are extra steps to go through if there are going to be substantial changes to job descriptions, how people can take vacation or change shifts. It takes months for the union to approve ANYTHING. Lastly, the technology our phlebotomists use is outdated. We’ve been looking at upgrading our system so that the phlebotomists can print the lab and mark the blood draw as complete at the time the lab is drawn. Unfortunately, the new system didn’t integrate with our electronic medical record so for now we’re stuck with a “bulk” approach. You know I’m six months from retirement. While I appreciate and welcome the help to try to improve the situation, I’m not sure it’s going to do much good.
Wait for interviewer to ask third question…
Lab Manager Response 3: I recently did observations of an entire mornings blood draws and recorded how the phlebotomists spend their time. With so many patients to draw, little delays here and there add up quickly, like having to start a new IV or draw blood cultures or the inevitable “stat” lab which requires they drop what they are doing on the bulk draw and deal with the stat lab instead. The nurses inform me that most of the early morning stat blood draws are not for distress but because the docs forgot to order routine morning labs! That totally disrupts the bulk draw work flow because the phlebotomist has to stop what they are doing and run off and take care of the stat draw. It just delays everything.