Yes it is an issue especially if you are a blood banker and someone dies.
I've known of court cases where the medical laboratory scientist was listed
with the pathologist.
The reality is there's not much point because most medical laboratory
scientists don't have much by way of assets and most complainants want to
take the doctor (pathologist) for all he or she has on the assumption their
defence organisation has more money.
As a pathologist I've said to staff who want to be funny that if I go down
I'll take 'em with me.  Of course I wouldn't, but for shock value it makes
them think.  As more doctors divest their assets and wealth into their
partner's name or in other specially formulated arrangements, it may be a
crazy patients decides to go after a medical laboratory scientist.  Of
course there are some very well off scientists who have invested well, had
second jobs, inherited money etc.  If the complainant discovers this then
they are fair game.

I am a healthcare risk management consultant in Seattle, with 20 years
experience in the area of malpractice.  Yes, there is indeed such a thing as
malpractice claims against medical labs.  I have worked on many such cases
in my career.

Medical labs in the USA carry malpractice insurance, and all the employees
of the lab are covered by that insurance.  Thus, there is no need whatsoever
for a lab employee to buy his/her own malpractice insurance.  Perhaps if a
lab tech was an independent contractor, and not an employee, that person
would need to buy their own insurance.

Generally speaking, the corporation; i.e.: Medical Lab Inc., is named as the
defendant, and not the individual employees.  But, even if the individual
employees are named, the lab's insurance company defends them at no cost to
the employee.  As to the medical doctors and pathologists who work at the
lab, more often than not, they purchase their malpractice insurance from a
company specializing in writing insurance for physicians.  Not all companies
writing lab insurance will cover physicians for malpractice, or they are
more expensive than a company specializing in physicians..  So, it can be
common that in a malpractice case against a pathologist and a lab, there are
two insurance companies defending the case.

Of note, two major areas of growth in lab malpractice cases are reporting of
panic values, and missing something on cytology of pap smears.

Regards,

Michael Lloyd
Medex Consulting