A medical lab technician, also known as a medical lab technologist or a medical lab tech, is also known as a medical lab tech. This person works in a laboratory, where he or she performs various tests that have been ordered by doctors. Blood is the most commonly tested substance, but tissue samples, urine, and feces are also routinely tested. In some cases, the medical lab tech is also in charge of entering specimens into the lab and preparing them for testing in various ways. They usually work very consistent shifts, which is unusual for medical jobs.
When it comes to determining what illness or condition a patient may have, the medical lab tech is critical. The lab tech will almost never see the patient. From the patient’s location, samples are sent to the lab. Some medical labs provide phlebotomy services, which entails the patient coming into the lab to have blood drawn. Although this is not the medical lab tech’s job, he or she may be able to assist in situations where a patient is unwilling to cooperate, such as when a child needs blood drawn.
A specimen must be logged into the system before it can be tested. There are specialized data entry personnel in some laboratories who only log in specimens. In other labs, the medical lab tech is in charge of this. While a medical log book can be used to simply log the specimen in, most operations are now computerized. The lab tech is in charge of entering the specimen’s number, who it belongs to, what tests will be performed on it, and the doctor’s information.
In many cases, all that is required of the medical lab tech is to place the specimens to be tested into a machine. Specimens may pass through multiple machines depending on the tests. A report is generated automatically. The technician will then go over the report with you and send it to the doctor for further review.
In some cases, the tech will be in charge of performing a direct examination of the specimen to determine the source of the problem. This may entail examining a specimen under a microscope to determine the problem. A medical lab tech might need to check how many of a certain type of cell are present in a blood or tissue sample, for example. This frequently entails arduous and time-consuming work. The count is recorded, and the results are sent to the doctor who ordered the test.