New Parkland hospital features enhancements in laboratory services
State-of-the-art services are designed with patients, families in mind
When the new Parkland Memorial Hospital opened last August, the first phase of enhanced laboratory services deployed with the move of three labs to the hospital. Innovations included storing blood products in The Rees-Jones Trauma Center and opening a Rapid Response Laboratory that provides faster turn-around times for selected tests needed in critical care areas.
The next phase to further enhance patient care will occur this August as the remaining 10 laboratories and five support areas transition from the old facility to a state-of-the-art location in the Logistics building adjacent to the new hospital. The new space, specially designed by laboratory architects and lab staff, provides 37,630 square feet of clinical area and 24,460 square feet for administrative, physician and resident space. It is connected to the hospital via an underground hallway as well as through the campus pneumatic tube system.
“With a test volume that has increased from 5 to 11 million procedures since our existing lab opened, we are delighted to have this opportunity to expand into a new space. With this move, we can improve lab services for our patients today and well into the future,” said Nancy Berge, Administrative Director for Laboratory Services. “The new design incorporates streamlined specimen handling and testing, efficiencies and safety for lab staff, and expansion capacity for future growth.”
The Logistics labs also have a rare and highly valued feature for hospital-based labs – windows.
Patients will benefit from efficiencies provided by enhanced robotics and technology for improved throughput of high volume tests in hematology, chemistry and microbiology. The hematology robotic line includes laser/digital blood cell imaging, sophisticated user-defined rules for analysis and routing of complex samples for review, and an automated tube storage and retrieval capability, Berge noted. Blood smears can be reviewed by remotely located pathologists, saving travel time and improving the time to result for patient care.
“The main chemistry lines robotically perform specimen preparation, analysis and routing to retrievable storage locations – all while ‘on the line,’” Berge said. “Microbiology testing will have a state-of-the art specimen culture plating robot, dedicated rooms for molecular and virology testing for viruses and virus-like agents and a biosafety level 3 lab for tuberculosis testing.”
A biosafety level (BSL) is a set of biocontainment precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed laboratory facility. The levels of containment range from the lowest biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) to the highest at level 4 (BSL-4).
In addition, automated molecular analyzers are co-located to improve staff efficiencies while the manual molecular area provides the necessary physical design for new test development, Berge said.
Other features of the new space include the Lab Support Services centralized receiving and processing area for all specimen deliveries, both on and off campus, customer call center, a point-of-care test training lab and lab supply chain automation and centralized supply management.
“To accompany the new design, the Lab has undergone an operational reorganization to take advantage of the larger space, improve our ability to respond to the rapidly changing scientific landscape of clinical analytics, optimize information technology, and ultimately, better meet patient care needs,” Berge said.
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