Chemistry lab upgrade Sept. 23

STAT testing only during downtime

Starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, Salem Health Laboratories will upgrade the chemistry lab system that supports testing such as troponin, CMP, hCG and other chemistry-related studies.

The upgrade should take about four hours and will affect all Salem Health Laboratories, including Buildings A and C and West Valley Hospital in Dallas.

What does this mean for me?

• Continue placing laboratory orders in Epic as usual. Epic will remain fully available.
• Continue collecting specimens according to normal workflows.
• During the upgrade, the laboratory will only perform STAT and timed inpatient chemistry tests.
• Routine and outpatient chemistry specimens will be held and then processed once the upgrade is complete.
• Results will continue to be reported in Epic.
• STAT and timed inpatient results may take 30 to 60 minutes longer than usual because of temporary manual processing steps.
• Normal laboratory operations should resume following the upgrade, and a notification will be sent when testing has returned to normal.
  

If chemistry testing is needed during the upgrade, please ensure orders are entered with the appropriate priority designation and plan for potential delays in receiving results.

Questions? Contact Laboratory Manager Jenny Clow, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM, SCCM at 503-814-1604.