presently ACL’s majority owner, with the remaining shares divided between Tri-State Regional Associates, LLP — a holding company of 17 regional hospitals — and Pathology Associates of Erie, Inc., whose members serve as the medical directors of local hospital laboratories, as well as ACL. ACL provides these hospital partners, health-care providers and their patients with access to a multitude of services, technology and expertise, performing 4.1 million tests each year. To handle this volume, ACL is also one of the region’s larger employers with a highly skilled and trained staff of 470 that includes administrators, phlebotomists, technical staff, medical directors, Ph.D. level scientist and couriers. In fact, at a time when laboratory managers around the world face a rapidly aging population of laboratory staff and a higher incidence of unfilled vacancies for skilled workers, ACL has stayed ahead of the curve. The laboratory has actively invested in the local workforce through its ongoing certification training and continuing education reimbursement program, recruitment efforts and job fairs, as well as its on-the-job courier training and highly successful 12-week-long phlebotomy training program.
ACL is always striving for advancements that can be made to improve the quality and accuracy of the testing, as demonstrated by its investment in the Walk-Away Specimen Processor (shown here).
It’s an investment that is paying off. Presently, ACL’s employees have 5,700 years of total service. “When I talk to people about what keeps them at ACL, it is the love of what they do,” notes McQuillan. “The ability to impact patients and the enjoyment of being in the health-care field, people here are very passionate about being part of the medical team and having a positive impact on patient care.”
Advanced Services and State-of-the-Art Technology
With 406 various types of tests available, ACL’s depth of services and technology is far and wide. The labs, which are staffed by skilled technologists 24/7, offer testing for chemistry (including automated chemistry, endocrinology, special chemistry, and toxicology); hematology; coagulation; urinalysis; blood bank; blood irradiation; histology; and infectious disease antibody testing. Its microbiology/ virology lab includes comprehensive services for bacteriology, mycology, mycobacteriology, virology, molecular infectious diseases and parasitology. Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D., D(ABMM), ACL’s technical director for Microbiology, Virology & Immunology, is the lab’s resident expert in the microbiology world and has worked for Quest for 25 years, including 22 years at ACL. She explains how critical the lab’s work is to population health, especially at a time in medicine when multi-drug resistant organisms and infectious disease pathogens are re-emerging, such as measles and pertussis, and new ones are being identified. “We’re constantly challenged,” says Dr. Sullivan. “We want to keep up with the newest information that will help us provide a good quality answer more quickly. This allows for the physicians to receive the information needed to help them make a diagnosis and also to treat any infecting microorganism appropriately.” As Dr. Sullivan can attest, advances in technology have indeed made testing faster and more accurate, and ACL has been able to stay ahead of the curve with her team’s expertise and the support of Quest. ACL was the first lab in northwest Pennsylvania to serve as a test site for the MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry equipment — the “Cadillac” of infectious disease laboratory testing technology. Many hospitals and laboratories across the country, as a matter of fact, are considering implementing the MALDI-TOF because of its ability to gain high-quality, accurate, rapid identification of bacteria, fungi and mycobacteria. For the past seven months, the lab also has implemented the WalkAway Specimen Processor (better known as WASP), a revolutionary instrument for liquid sample processing for microbiology. The equipment automatically de-caps, plants, streaks and recaps specimens in seconds — and takes care of time-consuming preparation work. “We’re always striving for advancements that can be made to improve the quality and accuracy of the testing,” notes Dr. Sullivan, “and there have been so many changes in the last 20 years that have really helped us move forward. We’re committed to innovation, so we’re really focused on high-quality work with a good turnaround time, and we’re investing in innovation to help us make that happen for now and for the future.” >
Associated Clinical Laboratories (ACL) is a regional reference laboratory serving northwest Pennsylvania, Chautauqua County, New York and Ashtabula County, Ohio. Formed in 1986, the laboratory is a regional asset and resource for physicians and patients living and working in the service area. As a locally based laboratory, the medical directors, technical staff, support staff and administrative staff are readily available to both physicians and patients should questions arise regarding ACL’s services. Members of Pathology Associates of Erie serve as the medical directors of local hospital laboratories, as well as ACL. This oversight ensures that the laboratories focus on meeting the service needs of physicians and patients in the regional community. ACL’s ownership is divided between Quest Diagnostics, Pathology Associates of Erie and Tri-State Regional Associates. Tri-State partners include: Bradford Regional Medical Center, Brookville Hospital, Charles Cole Memorial Hospital, Clearfield Hospital, Corry Memorial Hospital, DuBois Regional Medical Center, Elk Regional Health Center, Grove City Medical Center, Kane Community Hospital, Meadville Medical Center, Millcreek Community Hospital, Punxsutawney Area Hospital, Saint Vincent Hospital, UPMC Hamot, Warren General Hospital, WCA Hospital and Westfield Memorial Hospital Tests performed each year: 4.1 million Number of tests performed onsite – 406 different assays Courier stops: 13,000 stops per month, 125,000 miles driven per month Patient encounters: 780,000 per year Number of employees: 470 with 150 phlebotomists; 130 technical staff, and 50 couriers Total years of employee service: 5,700, including six employees with more than 40 years of service Patient service center locations: 18 total in Pennsylvania and New York Hospital laboratories ACL manages: • Saint Vincent Hospital • Millcreek Community Hospital • Corry Memorial Hospital • Bradford Regional Medical Center • Olean General Hospital August 2015 > www.mbabizmag.com > 11