One department that exists in every major hospital and plays arguably one of the most important roles in diagnosing patients is the laboratory. The hospital lab is responsible for collecting and testing specimens like blood, urine, tissues, and bodily fluids to help diagnose and treat various diseases.

The first thing the lab technologists did in the morning was run quality control on the equipment. Quality control is when the machines are checked to make sure they’re working correctly and producing accurate results. Some machines run their own checks automatically, but for others, the lab techs had to go in and manually do it themselves. 

Since I was in the lab during the technicians’ morning shift, I got to watch the lab technicians perform quality checks on the machines that required them. For example, they would run a negative control sample through the equipment to make sure the machine correctly identified it as negative which would confirm that the machine was working properly.

Most of the time, the lab technologist’s job is to receive samples from all over the hospital, prepare them properly, run them through the machines, and send the results back to the right department. But occasionally, the machines aren’t able to confirm certain results, and that’s when the lab tech has to analyze the sample manually under a microscope.

For example, one of the machines couldn’t confirm the white blood cell count in a blood sample and could only give an approximation. So, the lab tech took a slide of the blood, set it up under the microscope, and had to count each white blood cell by hand to make sure the approximation was accurate.

The lab also had a blood bank, which is important in storing blood for patients who might need transfusions during surgeries or in emergencies. But the blood bank also handles blood typing for newborns. While I was there, samples from the Labor and Delivery Department would come in so the cord blood of the newborn baby could be tested and typed.

Even though I didn’t get to work directly with the patients, it was interesting to see the intricate processes that occur outside of the patient’s bedside table and how it helps physicians diagnose patients.