Inside Story: Saving Lives One Test at a Time

Feats of diagnostic excellence are all in a day's work at KHSC's KGH site labs.

From a blood sugar test, to cancer screening, to state of-the-art enzyme analyses, the clinical laboratories at the Kingston General Hospital (KGH) site of Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) are a powerhouse of productivity: carrying out more than eight million diagnostic tests for patients in Kingston and across southeastern Ontario.

These millions of tests—expected to increase by 40 per cent over the next decade—ride the hidden rails of the hospital’s pneumatic tubing system, one of many stops on Joyce deVette-McPhail’s periodic lab tours. “I remember the note that came through the tube, once,” says Joyce, KHSC’s Administrative Director, Clinical Laboratory Services, “It read: ‘You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are, and you saved my life.’”

These feats of diagnostic excellence are invisible to patients while being totally material to their care—80 per cent of clinical decisions are based on test results. Due to the challenges of the space—currently spread out over six crowded, cluttered levels in the Douglas Wing—inefficient work-arounds have become the norm for lab staff.

There is a plan underway to replace the aging labs with new facilities, as part of a major redevelopment project at KHSC’s KGH site.

Currently spread across six crowded levels, work is underway to replace the aging labs at KHSC's KGH site with new facilities.

The new patient care tower, which will house the modern new laboratories, is estimated to cost more than $500 million. Donors like you will help UHKF invest in this facility, which will bring the labs together into a single, larger, more efficient space, enabling them to continue to deliver quality, accurate results, while also meeting the projected rate of increase in testing.

During tours offered to donors, Joyce deVette-McPhail emphasizes how “minutes matter” in the labs: they impact turnaround time, workflow efficiency and timely results for rapid patient diagnoses and treatment.

Similarly, on the giving side, every dollar matters: Thank you for your continued generous support!

“After going through it, you have way more respect for the people who work in the labs. There are so many little details and they see so many patients, so many tubes of blood every day, and they have to make sure that everything is perfectly accurate … they do an amazing job.”

- Mackenzie, Leukemia Survivor