Good health care is a team effort and depends on the expertise of educated, skilled professionals in many different areas.
That team approach includes laboratory professionals since about 70 percent of the objective data used to diagnose and treat patients comes from information generated in the medical laboratory.
These dedicated individuals are key players on the health care team, and that is why April 22-28 has been designated National Laboratory Professionals Week.
At Community Memorial Hospital, 15 caring professionals make up the staff of the laboratory. These health care workers have the skills to unlock important medical information that is pivotal to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease.
Using modern, biomedical equipment and complicated analysis, they can detect the presence of disease, identify infectious bacteria, measure substances like glucose, cholesterol and drug levels in blood and body fluids.
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The laboratory at CMH is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Yearly, over 10,000 patients have their blood drawn for blood tests. Approximately 140,000 patient tests are performed each year in the lab. These tests are what enable physicians and other health care professional to diagnose and treat medical conditions.
