the
FOUNDATION
report
summer 2020
COVID-19 Response and Update: Message of thanks from Providence Care and KHSC Page 2
Virtual cheers, to your health! fundraiser Page 4
KHSC and providence care: Stronger together Page 6
Celebrating the Unsung Heroes at Kingston health sciences centre Kingston Health Sciences Centre’s (KHSC) hardworking team of clinical laboratory professionals are always committed to providing accurate and timely test results for patients. In recent weeks, they have rapidly changed the way they work in order to provide quick and accurate testing for the entire southeastern Ontario region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Typically, it would take months to prepare the laboratories for a new test, but KHSC was able to get the necessary licensing, equipment, supplies and staffing in just a couple of weeks, which is truly remarkable given the stringent requirements for accreditation. “What people often don’t realize is just how specialized a skill set it is to extract genetic information and do the molecular testing,” says Dr. Sandip SenGupta, Laboratory Medical Director, KHSC. “It’s not routine testing by any
means. Since there just weren’t enough staff in the microbiology laboratory alone, we cross-trained some of our staff from the genetics laboratory because of their similar level of expertise so that we could ramp up our testing capability further.” This type of skill set in laboratory medicine, especially in fields such as molecular microbiology, is not ordinarily taught in colleges to students. KHSC is fortunate to work closely with the KFL&A Public Health Laboratory in Kingston for testing. Samples for testing are also received from hospitals in Peterborough, Cobourg, Smiths Falls, and Brockville which depend on KHSC’s ability to support them with timely results. Continued on page 2...