St. Joe’s exiting itself from co-ownership of Lab Alliance, investing $9.1 million in new lab
St. Joseph’s Health announced that construction is underway to expand laboratory services at the hospital. As it announced earlier this year, the healthcare system is divesting its co-ownership of Laboratory Alliance of Central New York (LACNY) in January 2024.
This move allows for the expansion of a high-tech anatomic pathology laboratory at the hospital that is designed to optimize work processes and enable faster delivery.
In addition, St. Joseph’s Health and St. Peter’s Health Partners are evaluating ways to share resources to better serve the needs of both regions.
“The demand for high-quality lab services in our community remains strong,” said Meredith Price, senior vice president of acute operations at St. Joseph’s Health. “To meet that demand, we’re expanding our anatomic pathology area by 1,600 square feet, which will allow us to better process the approximately 45,000 pathology and cytology specimens that originate at our facilities every year.”
Effective January 2024, laboratory testing that is currently being sent from St. Joseph’s Physician practices to LACNY will be redirected to the St. Joseph’s Health Hospital laboratory. A new lab information system, Epic Beaker, is also being integrated. The total cost of the project is $9.1 million and will result in dozens of new jobs.
“We have extended offers to all the LACNY employees who work at the existing hospital-based Rapid Response Lab,” said Price. “We also started recruitment efforts in the community a few months ago and continue to bring new colleagues into St. Joseph’s laboratory positions with each orientation,” said Price.
St. Joseph’s Health is offering a $5,000 sign-on bonus to all new lab hires and a $5,000 referral bonus to current St. Joseph’s Health employees and new lab colleagues who refer someone to a lab position.