By Kirell Lakhman

Here's an oldie but goodie: Demand for med techs at most US labs these days far outstrips their supply [see here and Washington G-2 Reports, which said earlier this month that revenue generated this year by US clinical labs will swell between 6 percent and 7 percent to around $58.8 billion. By 2017 the market will balloon to $98.5 billion.

But the lead lining in that cloud is that not every lab will win a seat at the table. There simply aren't enough qualified techs to go around. Thomas Dilts, vice chair of administration and operations in the Department of Pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine, told attendees of last month's CLMA conference — mainly lab managers — that their likelihood of hiring and retaining qualified staffers anytime soon is "dire."

Spying the market from the opposite perspective, the US government says job opportunities for clinical lab workers "are expected to be excellent" between 2009 and 2016 because "the number of job openings is expected to continue to exceed the number of job seekers." The government expects clinical lab employment to grow 14 percent over the next seven years.

What's a lab manager to do? One lab has shown it has been able to outsmart the stats and grow headcount by paying a substantial premium to techs with more experience than traditional med techs. Molecular technologists at the Clinical Pathology lab at Dartmouth College's Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, "not only … come with this specialty training, they also come with a specialty board certification," including NCA and ACP accreditation, said lab director Greg Tsongalis.

As a result, Hitchcock's molecular techs can expect to pocket as much as 10 percent more in earnings than their med-tech counterparts, Tsongalis says.

According to the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, med techs will earn as much as $57,300 in 2009 if they work for the federal government; around $50,000 if they are employed at medical and diagnostic labs or at general medical and surgical hospitals; or around $45,000 at physician offices and at colleges, universities, and professional school. The BLS updates its figures every two years.

Based on the federal numbers and factoring in Tsongalis' 10-percent premium, molecular techs can expect to earn as much as $63,000 at federal government labs or around $55,000 at general medical and surgical hospitals like the Hitchcock. Tsongalis would disclose only a percentage increase his molecular techs typically receive.