Inside the Lab at Children’s feat. Ashley Crawford

Our mission at Children’s is to provide the best and most efficient care possible to our patients. Ashley Crawford, a Medical Lab Technologist, is one of our employees who contributes to our mission in a different way than most.

Ashley has been with Children’s for the last 10 years. Specifically, she works in the Blood Bank and Cardiovascular (CV) Lab, assisting with cardiac patients who are undergoing open heart surgeries.

While getting her degree in Medical Lab Technology, Ashley developed knowledge and passion for the field. Learning the impact she could make working in a Blood Bank made her fall in love with the career path. Today, she gets to live out that passion at Children’s.

“Whenever we have a trauma case come in, we deliver blood down to the room in case they need to perform transfusions. We do this to try and stay ahead of each case, ensuring the medical team has as much blood as they need available to them. This helps make sure patients are getting the best care possible in a timely manner.”

Ashley’s job is made easier thanks to the amazing team she gets to work with every day in the Blood Bank.

“Our team in the Blood Bank communicates constantly—we are always asking each other if someone needs help. The team here has become like a family to me.”

Over the last 10 years, Ashley has witnessed a lot of change in the lab, specifically with increases in technology available to the team. The technology Children’s implemented that she thinks has made the biggest impact is a solution named ProVue.

“ProVue is an instrument that helps streamline our workloads, especially during times when we are really busy. The instrument can do a lot of the same tasks that we can, so it really helps with the lab team’s time management.”

Overall, Ashley’s experience working in the Blood Bank has affirmed the passion she felt for the field when she began studying it.

“I just really love the department I work for and am very happy to be part of the Blood Bank and CV team. I enjoy what I do and I’m always excited to come into work.”

Team members like Ashley make Children’s of Alabama the one-of-a-kind place to work that it is. Embrace your passion and apply today to join our team in the lab!