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 Newsletter - Spring 2002
GRACE COTTAGE'S LABORATORY - "A SILENT PARTNER" "A lot of people think that all we do is stick them with needles and draw their blood, or ask them for a urine sample and, unfortunately, in that role, we're not very well-liked!" laughed Jane Schilcher, Director of Laboratory Services at Grace Cottage. "But we do so much more, on a daily basis, that people never see, and our role in their healthcare is a great deal more involved than that."Although Grace Cottage's lab, located near the main entrance to the hospital, is a relatively small space, it's extremely well connected to the outside world. Thanks to computer links to The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, and the North East Community Laboratory Alliance (NECLA), a wide variety of lab tests can be performed and analyzed. "There are about 50,000 types of analyses that can be done on a blood sample these days," said Schilcher, "and thanks to our computer links, we can do a great many of them. For tests that need to be performed elsewhere, a courier comes daily to pick up and deliver blood samples wherever they need to go in order to be fully analyzed." Schilcher says that the small size of Grace Cottage's lab is, in many ways, a big asset. "Clinical labs are a very highly-regulated industry, and all labs are frequently subject to inspections, quality control measures, and competency tests," she observed, "especially since the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act was enacted by Congress. We're very quick at Grace Cottage to put policies, procedures and systems in place to respond to federal regulations that are constantly changing."
Grace Cottage's lab has two full-time and three part-time employees, with a total of 40 years of lab experience. "Labs are very labor-intensive," said Schilcher. "Every day, the lab equipment must be tested for accuracy, and the results of every test must be interpreted as soon as possible, with a decision made about whether the physician should be alerted immediately if a result is out of the 'normal' range." The components of Grace Cottage's lab read like a medical textbook: hematology, clinical chemistry, immunohematology (blood bank), microbiology, serology, immunology, urinalysis, mycology and parasitology; all largely meaningless to the layperson unless one of these areas of expertise is needed for a lab test which helps a physician diagnose, and then treat, an illness. So stop in and thank a medical technologist in your nearest lab today - you'll be warmly greeted, especially if it's Grace Cottage's staff you're thanking! |
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