Document Control:

N.L. VILLA MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER

Lipa City Revision No.:

Effective Date: SEPTEMBER 2022

LABORATORY DEPARTMENT
Page No: 1

POLICY ON INCREASE WORKLOAD

This document is a property of N.L. Villa Memorial Medical Center and the contents are treated confidential
therefore, unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited unless otherwise permitted by NLVMMC Management.
 Document Control:
N.L. VILLA MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER
Lipa City Revision No.:

Effective Date: SEPTEMBER 2022

LABORATORY DEPARTMENT
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General principles
There must be sufficient, trained and competent staff at all levels and at all times to
ensure:
 patient safety and professional duty of care
 quality assured analytical processes
 timely and effective service delivery
 good professional practice
 compliance with statutory, regulator, quality and audit standards
 cover for staff absence including annual, maternity, study and sick leave
 agreed specimen turnaround time, from receipt of specimen, (at which point the
laboratory assumes full responsibility), to availability of results
 provision of scientific advice
 risk management and clinical governance
 support and opportunity for undertaking continuous professional development(CPD)
relevant to practice
 training and assessment of competence

Data should be maintained and highlight any drift in the above criteria
 Any workload measurement and management system needs to be able to respond
to external factors such as an increase or decrease in workload requests, changing
patterns of work (extended days, shifts), new working arrangements, service
reconfiguration and new training requirements.
 Availability of service is a key consideration. There needs to be sufficient trained and
qualified staff available at all times to ensure continuity of service and to operate
within agreed performance and safety criteria.
 Methods used for measuring and managing workload and to enable workforce
planning must be reliable and easy to use. They need to be able to take account of
current activity or any back-log of work that exists within the system and also the

This document is a property of N.L. Villa Memorial Medical Center and the contents are treated confidential
therefore, unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited unless otherwise permitted by NLVMMC Management.
 Document Control:
N.L. VILLA MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER
Lipa City Revision No.:

Effective Date: SEPTEMBER 2022

LABORATORY DEPARTMENT
Page No: 3

capability of the workforce, the skills and competencies needed to deliver the
service.
 Any result using a numerical formula to demonstrate an insufficient staff to workload
ratio would require justification in terms of detriment to patients, loss of service or
unacceptable professional standards. Key indicators such as inputs, outcomes and
resource consumption of the service delivery should therefore be identified in order
to address questions when evaluating the risk of a service that is considered to have
insufficient or inappropriate staff.
 To identify the appropriate staff number and skill mix required to deliver a service,
raw workload statistics alone are rarely sufficient. Other essential elements that need
to be factored in are those of quality and audit, health and safety, training, leadership
and management. These factors, in combination with the sample workload,
constitute the clinical laboratory service.
 Reference should be made to comparative data, regulatory and quality standards
and the Institute’s Good Professional Practice and Code of Conduct.
 Audit timetables that are not being followed or are delayed, and also significant
delays in clearing non compliances (from audits or incidents), are a sign that the
quality management system may be under-resourced.
 Failure to maintain adequate levels of training and competency assessments are a
sign that the laboratory may be under-resourced and the quality of the service is at
risk.

Training and education

Training and development is an essential and integral aspect of a laboratory service.
This does not simply apply to new members of staff or training for existing staff on new tests or
equipment but is an ongoing feature of continuing professional development, competency to
practice and as such has a direct relationship with quality of service. Training must also be
taken into account when planning changes to workload or reconfiguration of service. Each
laboratory must ensure that responsibility for training is undertaken by a fully supported,
appropriately qualified and competent biomedical scientist. All MedTech have a professional

This document is a property of N.L. Villa Memorial Medical Center and the contents are treated confidential
therefore, unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited unless otherwise permitted by NLVMMC Management.
 Document Control:
N.L. VILLA MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER
Lipa City Revision No.:

Effective Date: SEPTEMBER 2022

LABORATORY DEPARTMENT
Page No: 4

obligation and a duty of care to ensure that they maintain their professional standards, integral
to which is the provision of training to grades and groups of staff as required. This is essential
to:
 maintain and develop the quality of service to ensure that it is compatible with
laboratory accreditation requirements
 ensure a workforce that is fit for purpose

Action when staffing and workload issues may compromise patient safety
If a Medical Technologist has concerns that established staffing levels and/or skill mix are
inappropriate for the workload they are employed to manage such that patient safety is, or may
be, seriously compromised, and they are able to substantiate these concerns, the following
action should be taken:
 identify the area(s) and nature of risk,
 provide written information to their accountable manager of the areas in which there is
concern, identifying the relevant workload and quality issues supported by appropriate
evidence,
 if possible, offer options by which the issues may be addressed during short-term
remedial action and for longer term workload management strategy. If an employer does
not take adequate action, independent advice should be sought on taking the matter
further. All concerns and the steps taken to try to resolve them must be recorded in full
detail

Procedures
1. There shall be a Medical Technologist on call every day.
2. In case of an increase workload, report to any supervisor or lab manager to make some
adjustments.
3. Supervisor or lab manager shall inform the on call on duty to report to laboratory.

4. Once on call confirmed, be sure to notify HR regarding the schedule adjustment.

This document is a property of N.L. Villa Memorial Medical Center and the contents are treated confidential
therefore, unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited unless otherwise permitted by NLVMMC Management.