Students in our fully accredited Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) program receive extensive mentoring and hands-on experience at our partners in Yakima at Yakima Memorial Hospital and Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center and in the Tri-Cities at Kadlec Medical Center, Kennewick General Hospital, and Lourdes Medical Center in addition to their coursework. Students spend the first 18 weeks of a 52-week program in the classroom, then participate in a wide range of experiences within four different departments of area hospital labs. Upon graduation, students have a variety of career paths to choose from, and they are often recruited and placed in jobs due to the incredible demand for certified technologists.

 

 

 

Through the sophisticated scientific tests technologists perform on blood, tissue, and body fluids, clinical laboratory scientists (medical technologists) aid pathologists and physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Technologists are asked to perform complex analyses and make important decisions that affect patient treatment. In fact, many medical diagnoses come from the work performed in clinical labs. Technologists must be able to see the interdependence of the test and know the physiological conditions affecting test results. To achieve this, they use many sophisticated instruments and procedures to perform a variety of laboratory tests in the areas of clinical chemistry, blood banking, hematology, and microbiology. Because of their education, clinical laboratory scientists can establish and monitor quality control programs and write/update clinical procedures as needed. They are often promoted to supervisory positions and can go into education, sales, research, or the military (officer) or even on to medical school.

 

The CLS program at Heritage is fully accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Lab Sciences (NAACLS).