A new survey from Siemens Healthineers and The Harris Poll reveals the toll prolonged understaffing is taking on clinical laboratory personnel and the patients they serve.
Conducted June 17-28, 2024, the survey of 408 U.S. laboratory professionals in the healthcare industry overall recognizes the value they bring to patients and their medical peers. Most laboratory professionals participating in the survey (95%) agree that they are a critical part of the healthcare system, and nearly as many (94%) believe they can make a positive impact on patient outcomes. However, they continue to operate with fewer laboratory staff. Vacancy rates in laboratories are estimated to be 7–11%, and as high as 25% in some geographies.
Nearly two-in-five (39%) laboratory professionals rank limited staff to support laboratory operations as their greatest challenge. Five percent of laboratory professionals reported that their lab had closed temporarily because of understaffing.
A majority (83%) of laboratory professionals believe the demand for laboratory services will continue to increase, underscoring the urgency of finding solutions to the ongoing workforce shortage. Although more than half (52%) of laboratory professionals agree that automation threatens their job and one-in-four (27%) cite fear of losing their job among reasons they are reluctant to adopt new technologies, 95% agree that adoption of automated technologies will help them to improve patient care.
Laboratory professionals acknowledge that high- and low-risk errors may be made in the laboratory due to being overworked or burned out. Low-risk errors were categorized as administrative, documentation, or repeat-testing-related errors, while high-risk errors involved biohazard exposure for staff or reporting incorrect test results. Fourteen percent of laboratory professionals personally admit they have made a high-risk error and 22% a low-risk error. However, 24% admit they have never made a high-risk error, but have witnessed high-risk errors made by other staff members. A nearly equal percentage say they have never made a low-risk error but have witnessed low-risk errors (25%). An additional 29% of laboratory professionals say they have never made a low-risk or a high-risk error but worry about making one due to feeling overworked or burned out.
With fewer repetitive, manual tasks to handle, laboratory professionals indicated they would reallocate their saved time to training and mentoring employees (46%), performing more quality control troubleshooting (42%), and more efficiently managing the test sample process across departments (39%). Nearly nine-in-ten (89%) laboratory professionals agree their laboratories need automation to keep up with demand, with 91% agreeing that utilizing AI tools and technology can help address unmet patient care challenges or needs.
