St. Mary's Medical Center Opens State-of-the-art Laboratory
GRAND JUNCTION, CO – St. Mary’s Medical Center, part of Intermountain Health, is celebrating the opening of the most advanced laboratory in western Colorado.
This state-of-the-art facility located inside St. Mary’s Hospital replaces the old lab originally built in 1973 and incorporates cutting-edge technology including new automated testing machines. The advanced testing equipment will automatically upload patient results into electronic patient records making results available to physicians and patients faster than ever before.
“We process over 2 million specimens annually. The amount of time it takes labs to be accurately completed on our new automation line will decrease by at least 5 minutes for most specimens, and for some tests, it will be even faster,” said Kevin Dryanski, St. Mary’s Laboratory Services Director. “With this new facility, we are truly the most efficient, advanced lab between Denver and Salt Lake.”
Accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the new clinical laboratory automation line brings to Grand Junction the most current technology available. The automated embedding technology in pathology, for example, is one of less than 200 in the country.
“This project along with our new pharmacy represents a $52.8 million dollar investment into innovative technology and more importantly our community,” said Bryan Johnson, St. Mary’s Medical Center President. "We are excited this new space for Laboratory Services will enable us to continue providing the highest quality advanced testing available for patients in the region.”
St. Mary's Laboratory provides services for over 125 clinics, practices, and healthcare agencies in Western Colorado. Services include histology, cytology, pathology, blood bank, transfusion services, full clinical laboratory (chemistry, hematology, urinalysis, coagulation, fertility), microbiology, molecular, and blood draw.
The newly expanded space also increases the capacity to process results while allowing room to grow to meet future demands.
St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado, is the largest medical center between Denver and Salt Lake City. Serving the healthcare needs of western Colorado and eastern Utah for more than 125 years, St. Mary’s has a rich history of serving the many needs of its community. St. Mary’s Medical Center is part of the Intermountain Health system which operates multiple clinics and hospitals in Colorado and six other western states. Intermountain is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical groups with some 3,900 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division, SelectHealth with more than one million members, and other health services.