Abstract
To expand the role of medical technologists in response to legal reforms made in 2015, our hospital devised a system where all laboratory staff would support physicians in clinical tasks and engage in team medicine. To secure staffing for this system, we had all our laboratory staff participate in a seminar specified by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which allowed us to place staff in rotating shifts and thus have dedicated staff for influenza testing continually available in the emergency department on days when the hospital is closed for appointments. We decided that these medical technologists would be responsible for all influenza testingrelated tasks beginning with collecting samples from patients with fever suspected of having influenza to reporting test results. This change significantly improved work efficiency and testing turnaround time, and was viewed favorably by physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators.
