In today's lesson, we'll be learning the medical assistant's roles and responsibilities in working and assisting in the lab. Now, it does fall within the medical assistant's scope of practice. However, we need to be familiar with some of the common laboratory equipment you may come across and operate within your field.
You'll learn about testing protocols and laboratory protocols, as well as lab safety. And it's important to research and know what falls within your scope of practice when it does come to working within a lab setting. We are mandated through something called CLIA, and CLIA is the Clinical Laboratories Improvement Amendment.
And CLIA was put in place to oversee lab accuracy. They determine the complexity of the tests that we're able to perform within the medical setting. They also have guidelines in which we must adhere to to ensure quality assurance, as well as quality control procedures that need to be taken as well. Now, in regards to medical assistance and working in the lab, all things that we do are considered CLIA wave testing.
And anytime a test falls under what's called CLIA wave, it means that it's going to be on the lower scale when it comes to complexity and performing it. as well as reading the results. There are two types of labs that you may experience in your field.
And the first one is called a reference laboratory. Now the reference laboratory is going to be located outside of the provider's practice. This is going to be an office where we will send our patients with a lab requisition.
They'll go and they'll have these tests done. And then the results are then given back to the provider. The other option would be a POL, which is a physician's office laboratory.
This is going to be within that provider's establishment where the labs are done right there on site. It does provide a quicker turnaround in the results and it eliminates the need for the patient to have to travel because it's kind of a one-stop shop where they can see the provider and also have their lab services done at the same time.