About Us
The Laboratory Medicine Program at Eastern Health provides an array of laboratory testing services to patients and offers specialized testing, diagnostic consultation and environmental testing.
Our highly trained professionals collect specimens and perform thousands of tests each year to help health-care providers diagnose, treat and/or monitor illnesses. We aim to deliver the highest standard of patient care, safety and quality of service.
Vision and values
The Department is inspired by Eastern Health’s vision of Healthy People, Healthy Communities, and guided by the organization’s values of: accountability, caring, collaboration, excellence and respect. To learn more, please visit the Vision and values page.
Our team
Service providers in our laboratory team include:
- medical scientists and physicians (e.g., anatomical pathologists, hematopathologists, cytopathologists, microbiologists, clinical biochemists, and geneticists);
- medical laboratory technologists;
- medical laboratory assistants;
- phlebotomists;
- lab information specialists; and
- administrative professionals.
Laboratories
Our medical laboratories (labs) provide specimen collection services locally. Our labs vary in size and complexity and offer a variety of testing services. Lab services for complex testing is centralized in larger hospitals or acute care centres. Certain specialized testing may be referred to labs out of province.
Service areas
Jointly, our teams work together to provide services in all disciplines of the laboratory:
- anatomic pathology;
- assisted reproductive technology (fertility);
- biochemistry;
- coagulation;
- cytogenetics;
- cytology;
- hematology;
- laboratory information systems;
- mass spectrometry;
- microbiology;
- molecular genetics;
- point-of-care testing;
- public health testing;
- quality management systems;
- special immunochemistry; and
- transfusion.
Laboratory Information System (LIS)
The large amount of information processed in our laboratories is managed by a system of software programs, computers, and terminology standards that exchange data about patients, test requests, and test results known as a Laboratory information system or LIS. The LIS is interfaced with the hospital information system, the provincial electronic health record systems and laboratory and point-of-care analytical instruments.
Laboratory Quality Management System
Our laboratories have implemented a Quality Management System based on internationally recognized standards and guidelines. Continual process improvement strategies regularly used are the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ model and LEAN Six Sigma methodologies. To learn more, see our Quality Policy Statement.