Intermountain St. Mary’s Medical Center Opens New State-of-the-Art Laboratory to Enhance Patient Care

St. Mary’s Medical Center, now part of Intermountain Health, has opened the most advanced laboratory in western Colorado.

This state-of-the-art facility located inside St. Mary’s Hospital replaces the old lab originally built in 1973 and incorporates cutting-edge technology including new automated testing machines.

The advanced testing equipment will automatically upload lab results into electronic patient records making results available to physicians and patients faster than ever before.

“We process over two million specimens annually. The amount of time it takes labs to be accurately completed on our new automation line will decrease by at least five minutes for most specimens, and for some tests, it will be even faster,” said Kevin Dryanski, St. Mary’s laboratory services director. “With this new facility, we are truly the most efficient, advanced lab between Denver and Salt Lake City.”

Accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the new clinical laboratory automation line brings to Grand Junction the most current technology available. The automated embedding technology in pathology, for example, is one of less than 200 in the nation.

“This project, along with our new pharmacy, represents a $52.8 million dollar investment into innovative technology and more importantly our community,” said Bryan Johnson, St. Mary’s Medical Center president. “We are excited this new space for Laboratory Services will enable us to continue providing the highest quality advanced testing available for patients in the region.”

St. Mary’s Laboratory provides services for over 125 clinics, practices, and healthcare agencies in Western Colorado.  Services include histology, cytology, pathology, blood bank, transfusion services, full clinical laboratory (chemistry, hematology, urinalysis, coagulation, fertility), microbiology, molecular, and blood draw.

The newly expanded space also increases the capacity to process results while allowing room to grow to meet future demands.

About Intermountain Health

Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 34 hospitals, 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For more information or updates, see https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.