State Licensure Update

Extract

The American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) has worked for state licensure of laboratory personnel for many years. This has been a challenge, and it has been a number of years since a state was successful in passing a state licensure bill. The most recent success was Montana in 1993. Despite the challenges, a number of constituent societies of ASCLS have continued in their efforts toward licensure, and have attempted to build coalitions of laboratory professional organizations to support their efforts. In every case, however, it has been the ASCLS-based group who was the leader in licensure efforts.

At the ASCLS national meeting, a “State Licensure and Legislative Update” session is held annually. The August 2003 session was a panel presentation that had three purposes: to present updates from states that are in various stages of trying to pass licensure legislation, to review post-implementation issues that are currently arising in already licensed states, and to review other state initiatives related to laboratory personnel.

Interest in personnel licensure has been heightened in the past two years due to:

• the need for better data on numbers of practitioners, related to bioterrorism readiness.

• worsening laboratory personnel shortages, tied to the need for recognition of the profession.

• public concern about medical errors and patient safety.

The purpose of licensure is to protect:

• public health and safety.

• laboratory scope of practice by excluding those who have not acquired appropriate requisites for licensure.

Certainly both of these…