Licensure: clinical laboratory personnel.

Existing law provides for the regulation and licensure of clinical laboratories and clinical laboratory personnel by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to issue a clinical chemist, clinical microbiologist, clinical toxicologist, clinical molecular biologist, or clinical cytogeneticist license to each person who has applied for the license on a specified form, who also holds a master of science or doctoral degree in the specialty for which the applicant is seeking a license, and who has met other requirements, including the payment of specified application and license fees. Existing law requires the department to determine by examination, except as specified, whether an applicant is qualified. Existing law requires the graduate education to have included 30 semester hours of coursework in the applicants's specialty. This bill would require the department to issue a clinical biochemical geneticist license to a person meeting these requirements. For the above-enumerated specialities and subspecialties, this bill would specify that a formal letter or other official written documentation issued by an accredited training program indicating that an applicant completed the program, and from a clinical laboratory confirming the applicant's employment experience, shall constitute sufficient evidence. The bill would also require an applicant to provide evidence of satisfactory performance on a written examination in the applicant's specialty or subspecialty administered by an appropriate accrediting body recognized by the department. This bill would require the department to post application forms and instructions for licensure in clinical laboratory practice on its Internet Web site, to notify an applicant whether the application is complete or requires additional documentation to become complete. The bill would also require the department to issue a temporary license to an applicant meeting specified experience and certification requirements, within 30 days of determining an application is complete. The bill would also make conforming changes. The bill would require the department to set and charge application fees sufficient to recover the costs of implementing the provisions of the bill.