The lab team is all smiles after the SEARHC facility in Wrangell was ranked among the top medical labs in the nation. Front row, from left: Kaylyn Easterly, Hannah Baker, Shari Rempp, Danielle Russell; back row: Cathy Gentry.
Doctors may get all the attention, hefty salaries and steamy medical TV shows, but they are not the only health care professionals who play essential roles in the real-life drama of a hospital. Laboratory teams work with pipettes and samples behind the scenes, performing the tests that doctors use to diagnose illness.
Patients at the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's Wrangell Medical Center can rest assured that their test results are being processed with precision. The center's laboratory teams rank in the top one percent for quality lab services nationwide, according to the Commission on Office Laboratory Accreditation (COLA).
COLA, which performed an on-site survey of Wrangell's facilities this summer, is a third-party accreditor that ensures labs meet federal standards. Well-operated labs are a crucial piece of a hospital's overall effectiveness – 70% of medical decisions depend on lab test results and between 40,000 and 80,000 deaths occur annually from preventable diagnostic errors, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A COLA surveyor told Constance Stager, director of laboratory services at SEARHC, that she had given a perfect score to only one other lab in the last year. "Thanks to the diligent work of our lab teams, we are able to provide superior care to the Wrangell community," Stager said in a prepared statement.
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