Day in the Life

The phlebotomy technician arrives at work in a hospital setting very early, sometimes at 4 a.m., to collect the morning samples. If the phlebotomist works in an outpatient clinic setting, the starting time may be later. Phlebotomists can work any shift in a hospital, as well. They "clock in" on the time clock and start their shift. Phlebotomists stock their carts/areas with the necessary supplies required for the day.

Hospital in-patient setting:
They phlebotomists obtain their blood drawing lists from the laboratory information system (LIS) computer. They then go out to the hospital floors to draw the patients on their lists. Different units require specialty teams at some hospitals: pediatric samples and intensive care unit patients are usually reserved for experienced specialty phlebotomists. Periodically, the technicians return to the lab processing area to drop off their samples. Other times, they send them via a pneumatic tube system to the lab.

Outpatient setting:
Labels to be placed on the patients' tubes are printed near the outpatient station. The phlebotomist collects the blood based on the orders indicated on the labels. The outpatient technician is quite busy drawing a variety of patients. Some are healthy, many are not. Some are very challenging. The pace can be very fast in this setting.

Processing:
Most phlebotomy technicians are also involved in the return of specimens to the lab, logging them in to the laboratory computer system as "collected", centrifuging them, taking off and storing plasma and serum from the tubes, and occasionally assisting in reporting.

Other duties:

• Training new phlebotomists.
• Performing and documenting lab equipment quality control procedures.
• Running point-of-care tests, such as hemoglobin or fecal occult blood.