CMMC Laboratory Services Cut to Save Accreditation

              The Shreveport Times
Farm News
Sunday, Feb. 13, 1972
Oil News
Metropolitan
News
Classified
Section C, Page One
CMMC Laboratory Services
Cut to Save Accreditation
By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
Laboratory services at Confederate
Memorial Medical Center (CMMC) were
cut last week to prevent disapproval of
the medical technology program by the
a c c r e d i t i n g agency, Dr. Warren D.
Grafton, director of the program, said
yesterday.
The school has been criticized by the
Society of Clinical Pathologists, the
accrediting agency, for requiring stu-dents
to carry a "significant share of the
daily workload" of the laboratory.
Routine work in the laboratory, said
Dr. Colin R. Macpherson, chairman of
the Board of Schools of the society,
should be educational experience for the
students, "and not cheap labor for the
laboratory."
The accrediting agency also said that
in some cases "the students didn't have
a total awareness of what they would be
expected to learn in a particular section
of the lab," Grafton said.
Believes Problem Solved
With a revised curriculum which
spells out the details of student activities,
the school director feels that criticism
has been taken care of.
He gave school officials 30 days to
correct the deficiencies, and threatened
recommending to the Council on Medical
Education of the American Medical
Association that "accreditation be with-drawn
from your program."
To become m e d i c a l technologists,
s t u d e n t s attend college three years
before serving 12 months of clinical
t r a i n i n g at an approved hospital.
Confederate is eligible for 17 students,
but presently has only 12.
The medical technology program is
the fifth of Confederate's programs to
come under fire in the last two years.
The hospital itself was approved for
only one year of accreditation instead of
two by the Joint C o m m i s s i o n on
Accreditation, and is scheduled to be
surveyed again this year.
The Department of Internal Medicine,
the Pediatrics D e p a r t m e n t and the
Department of Radiology are all on
provisional or probationary status.
The accrediting agency, Grafton said,
was concerned about the students being
required to collect blood each morning
Monday through Saturday, and being
required to carry a large share of the
laboratory workload.
Requirements 'Not Compatible'
Discussing the collection of blood and
the work load, Macpherson said "both of
these requirements are not compatible
with what the board regards as an
acceptable educational program."
"Certainly it is necessary for a
medical technologist to learn how to
draw blood from a variety of patients.
"We certainly expect that the student
will do this for two or four weeks or
s o m e t h i n g of that nature, but is
incompatible with education to demand
this throughout the 12 months," the letter
said.
Defending the use of the students in
the work load of the laboratory, Grafton
said "we had no choice because we
would not be able to offer the volume of
work we do without this.
"I mentioned this in the last budget
request," he said. "I requested at least
six different laboratory assistants and an
equal number of additional technicians."
Both Grafton and Hospital Director
Dr. Edgar Galloway pointed out that
even if money was available the Division
of Administration in Baton Rouge has not
approved any more slots in the laborato-r
y department.
"Every position is hired. We can't
hire any more," Grafton said, and
Galloway said "what can we do if there
is no money? If we don't get money . . .
and if we get the money I don't know we
would find them. We can't try to recruit
them unless you can offer them a job."
A glimmer of hope was offered by
Assistant Director Robert Hall who said
that the Division of Administration does
(participate in Emergency Employment
Act Funds, "and if this occurs we could
get 100 per cent funding."
"This funding is very tentative," he
said.
And Grafton said "we had no choice
but to remove the students from duties
if we wanted to save the program."
Reduction of Services
"It amounts to cutting down on work
we offer and we regret that," he said
dejectedly.
"Some of the services which we are
able to offer as a routine service will not
be available — or will be available on a
limited basis," he added.
"We will not be able to process
specimens at night from the comprehen-sive
care clinic.
"We will no longer be able to do
routine serum creatine, a test of kidney
function," Grafton said. "We were doing
routinely immunoglobulin profiles test
for antibodies on newborns. This will
have to be discontinued."
"It may be that any test that comes
down after a certain time — say 10 a.m.
— we will have to wait until the next day
to be able to do it," he added.
Every section of the laboratory is
affected, he said.
(Times Photo by John A. Moore)
Confederate's School of Medical Technology
...cut the services, save the program